McCartney says music helps him as divorce proceeds

LONDON, Sep 26 (Reuters) Paul McCartney has said writing new music had sustained him through the last few months, a period when his divorce from second wife Heather Mills has become increasingly acrimonious.

The former Beatle did not discuss the divorce directly during a press conference yesterday to launch his new classical album called ''Ecce Cor Meum'' (Behold My Heart), which took him eight years to complete.

But when asked how he had been coping in recent months, the 64-year-old told reporters: ''I'm doing fine, thank you. It's okay, I'm enjoying music ... it's something I love to do, something that sustains me and so I'm enjoying it.'' He explained that the death of first wife Linda from breast cancer in 1998 was one reason his latest album, a choral piece commissioned by Magdalen College, Oxford University, had taken so long to complete.

''It was started when Linda was alive and we originally went up to Magdalen together so it has a lot of my feelings for her in it,'' he said.

''When she died, it stalled me, it took a year or so before I could get back into it. So her spirit is very much in this. It would have been her birthday yesterday, so it's very appropriate.'' After being asked about reports yesterday in the Mirror tabloid quoting him describing his split from Mills as ''horrible, so horrible'', McCartney replied: ''Have we someone breaking away from the script? Yes we have.

Thank you very much.'' He then left the press conference.

McCartney, who married Mills in 2002, cited the former model's ''unreasonable behaviour'' in divorce papers. Mills, 38, has responded by vowing to file counter-claims in Britain and the United States.

Lawyers believe McCartney could lose up to one quarter of his wealth, estimated at 825 million pounds, as a result of a divorce, partly because he did not sign a pre-nuptial agreement.

REUTERS PB RN0835