JORDANIAN government officials today told the mother of two girls snatched and taken to the Middle East that her best chance of getting them back was to fight through their country's courts.

Distraught mother Josephine Bromley has already had her children made wards of court by a Blackburn judge after their father, Jehad Al-Momani, of Station Road, Great Harwood took them to Jordan.

Salam, 10, and her sister Noor, seven, are believed to have been coaxed on to an aeroplane by their father who told them he was taking them to Alton Towers.

He had arranged to take the girls on a series of day trips as part of an access agreement drawn up with his ex-wife in the courts last year.

As well as enlisting the help of Jordanian-born Darwen councillor Karimeh Foster and local police -- who are liaising with Interpol and Jordan police to try and get the girls back -- Miss Bromley hopes Foreign Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw will help them when he returns from holiday next week.

Today, a spokesman for the Jordan Embassy in London said proof would be required that the girls belonged with their mother.

He said: "British law does not apply in Jordan. We need proof that the daughters belong with their mother. In our country, the daughters follow their father.

"The best way forward for this woman is for her to come to Jordan and go through our courts. We will do what we can to help her but we need proof the girls belong with their mother."

Miss Bromley fears she may never see her children again. Along with her fiance, Paul Tomlinson, who she lives in Lower Darwen with, she spent Noor's seventh birthday on Sunday inside a silent house, thousands of miles away from her daughter.

She doesn't know when they will speak again.

Miss Bromley said: "After last week's court case, the father said he was never coming back. He had said they would be back for the start of the school term but things keep changing.

"I didn't get to speak to my daughter on her birthday and I do not know when I will speak to them again. He controls everything. He says he is taping all our phone calls and if I say anything which upsets the girls I can never talk to them again.

"The whole thing has left me really distraught. It is now a case of relying on the authorities to help us.

"We are going to see Jack Straw in person as soon as he gets back off his holiday next week."