Allen to use sabbatical for pregnancy

London: Singer Lily Allen is using her announced break from music to start a family as she 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 as she is longing to have children with her boyfriend Sam Cooper and hopes to use her time off to become a mother, reports contactmusic.com. "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," she said. "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," she added. Earlier, Allen became pregnant while she was dating Ed Simons, but suffered a miscarriage in 2008. IANS