U2 are to release their first new studio album for almost five years at the end of February, it was announced last night.

No Line On The Horizon will go on sale in Ireland three days before it hits the shelves in the UK on March 2.

The new recording, their 12th studio album, was originally expected to be released this year, but Bono and his bandmates decided to keep working on it.

Sessions for No Line On The Horizon began last year in Fez, Morocco, before moving to the band’s own studio in their native Dublin.

Recording then switched across the Atlantic to New York’s Platinum Sound Recording Studios and was finally completed at Olympic Studios in London.

Long-time collaborators Brian Eno and Danny Lanois are among the production credits with additional production by Steve Lillywhite.

The album will go on release in Ireland on February 27.