U2 are “gutted” they won’t have a new album finished before next year.

The ‘With or Without You’ group had originally planned to release new material by the end of their 360 Degree tour this July, but their commitments have made it impossible to finish sessions for the record, leaving them disappointed.

Bass player Adam Clayton said: “We had to have a meeting and look at the schedule to see if we could pick up any extra time to work on it, and we just realised that we couldn’t.

“To be honest, everyone was a bit gutted. But it was the only sensible decision.”

The Irish group have been working on a number of different projects, with singer Bono and guitarist The Edge overseeing the launch of and creating the soundtrack to their ‘Spiderman: Turn off the Dark’ musical, and the whole group have completed sessions with producers Danger Mouse and RedOne.

While Bono has been talking about the band writing a “club sounding” record, Adam thinks they are more likely to focus on their sessions with Danger Mouse, rather than those with Lady Gaga collaborator RedOne.

He added to Rolling Stone magazine: “We have to focus on what we do best, and the work we did with Danger Mouse came closest to that.

“We want to be in the clubs and make pop music as well as the thing U2 does, but in the end, the thing we did with RedOne doesn’t feel like the right fit.”

U2 are now aiming to release their next album in the second half of 2012.