Lily Allen is planning to use her hiatus from music to start a family - the British pop star wants to have a baby "within a year."

The Smile hitmaker announced last year she is planning a hiatus from recording and performing live to concentrate on launching a designer clothes hire shop and setting up her own record company.

But the 25 year old admits there's another reason for her break from pop - she is longing to have children with her boyfriend Sam Cooper and hopes to use her time off to become a mother.

She tells Britain's News of the World, "I'd like to have a child within a year. It'll be a minimum of four or five years before I make a record again. I know what commitment it takes to release an album. I don't think that mixes well with the idea of settling down and having children, which is ultimately my goal and more of a priority than flying around the world.

"I'd want to be really hands-on for the first two or three years of having a little one. I don't want to leave them."
 Allen previously fell pregnant while she was dating Chemical Brothers star Ed Simons, but tragically suffered a miscarriage in 2008.

Lily Allen Pictures