Britney Spears celebrates her 26th birthday with former BFF Paris Hilton

Echoing their BFF-status of a year ago, Paris Hilton helped Britney Spears celebrate her birthday over the weekend - but the pair were reportedly arguing by the end of the evening.

Britney turned 26 yesterday but celebrated her birthday on Saturday night. The party started in the penthouse suite at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills, where Britney stayed for the weekend, with her usual accomplices such as cousin Alli Sims and friend Sam Lufti in attendance.

The group then headed over to the exclusive Scandinavian Style Mansion event at a private residence in Bel Air, California, with the newly-blonde birthday girl wearing a fake fur white coat over a little black dress.

Britney first stopped by the gifting area - where she collected further fur coats and a $10,000 diamond ring - before being presented with a small, round chocolate cake decorated with raspberries and the message ‘Happy Birthday Britney’.

A partygoer told OK magazine that Britney was delighted as friends and other guests gathered around to serenade her with ‘Happy Birthday’ as the cake was brought out: “She was smiling and looked really happy.”

But Britney was less impressed about Paris’ camera courting ways. Onlookers report: “Paris drank in the attention. Posing for the camera and eating it up.”

A source quoted in the Mirror claims at one point bodyguards had to pull the two blonde party animals apart: “They were shouting at each other - it nearly ended in a punch-up.”

But the pair then seemed to bury the hatchet as Paris was spotted with Britney’s core crew back at the Four Seasons in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The source explained: “It was just one of those things that happen on nights out. There was no hard feelings, just drunken silliness.”