Ed Sheeran has provided One Direction with love songs for their new album.

The singer/songwriter wrote compositions for the boy band's first record and revealed they were so impressed they have asked for more romantic tunes as they work on the eagerly awaited follow up to 'Up All Night'.

He told MTV: ''I wrote the three tracks that I gave [them] ... when I was 17 and they were on my hard drive for a long time.

''And then I gave them one song for their last album and they came back and said, 'Do you have any more?' and I said, 'Here's a whole load. Take your pick.'''

While the songs Ed wrote were inspired by a former girlfriend, he says they are all positive because it was such a great relationship.

He added: ''17-year-old Ed just wrote a lot of love songs, so expect to hear a lot of love songs on their album, I guess.

''I had a wicked girlfriend at 17. ... She was great. Actually [my] album is pretty much about her. So she spawned off a lot of songs.''