THE Legal Services Commission has refused to grant legal aid to the couple at the centre of an international love-tug battle, despite a judge calling on the organisation to help them fight their case.

Family judge David Gee, called on the commission to review their initial refusal of legal aid after a hearing at Blackburn County Court last week where he ordered children Noor, six, and Salam Al-Momani, 10, to be made wards of court.

The girls' mother, Josephine Bromley, 33 and fiance, Paul Tomlinson, 40, of Lower Darwen, say they need financial help to help them get the girls -- who were snatched by their father, Jehad Al-Momani, two weeks ago -- back from the Middle East.

But the commission says that although an initial request for legal aid was refused on the grounds that nothing can be done, the couple also fail to qualify as they do not meet the financial criteria.

A spokesman for the Legal Services Commission said: "We have reviewed the case in the light of the judge's comments.

"However the applicants' means are such that they are not eligible for legal aid and we have informed them of this.

"Legal aid is a means-tested benefit and we have to refuse a certificate if a person is assessed as having income or capital above the financial limits.

"These limits are contained in the regulations approved by parliament.

"The Legal Services Commission has to apply these rules and has no discretion to disregard them, no matter how distressing the circumstances of a particular case."

Noor and Salam were snatched by Mr Al-Momani, 37, of Station Road, Great Harwood, during an agreed access visit a fortnight ago.

Although Mr Al-Momani had been ordered to surrender his passport as part of the agreed terms of access, he hadn't done so at the time of the abduction.

Miss Bromley said he tricked the girls into getting on a plane by telling them they were going to Alton Towers.

He is believed to have returned back to his home village of Ebeen, outside the capital Amman, where he is staying with relatives.