Britney Spears wearing see through dress and lingerie at mother's birthday party in LA.(File Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

    BEIJING, Jan. 6 --Pop star Britney Spears, acknowledging that her image has taken a beating in recent months, thanked her fans for their loyalty on Friday and promised she would come back "bigger and better than ever."

    Spears, who raised eyebrows by partying with new pal Paris Hilton and from up-the-skirt pictures that repeatedly caught her without panties, told fans in a letter on her Web site, that she was working on a new album.

    "I look forward to coming back this year bigger and better than ever and to reaching out to my fans on a more personal level," writes Spears, who has been portrayed in the tabloids as out of control since filing for divorce from husband Kevin Federline in November.

    The latest reports, denied this week by her manager, said she collapsed on New Year's Eve in a Las Vegas nightclub.

    The Grammy award-winning entertainer showed concern that her dedicated legion of fans was losing patience with her antics.

    "I noticed today that one of my biggest fansites is shutting down soon and I want you all to know that I do understand all the reasons that went behind making that decision and I am sad to see it closing," Spears writes.

    "If I were you I'd be unhappy too if I had to read what I've been reading every day," Spears writes. "But trust me, I get it. I know I've been far from perfect and the media has had a lot of fun exaggerating my every move ... "

    Spears exploded onto the pop scene as a teenager in the late 1990s and has sold more than 70 million albums to become one of the best-known celebrities in the world. She largely stepped away from recording during her two-year marriage to Federline and the birth of her two sons.