British singer Elton John is to scale back on concert touring to spend more time with his two children, he revealed on Thursday.

The singer, who has two sons with his husband David Furnish, told BBC radio he did not like to be away from his family for long and would do "fewer gigs in the future".

"It's all based around the half terms now," John said, referring to the school calendar of his five-year-old son Zachary, who started school in September.

John's other son Elijah is three years old.

"I am going away to Japan and Australia and various places for like five weeks and it is going to be very hard, I have never been away from them for that long," said the 68-year-old musician, known for hits such as "Candle in the wind".

"I will never be away from them for as long again."

"When you have children they become the most important thing, it all revolves around them."

John and Furnish, a filmmaker, became civil partners in 2005 and married in 2014.