THE mother of two young girls snatched by their father and taken to Jordan today told how she spent Christmas Day unsuccessfully trying to contact her daughters.

And today, Josephine Bromley admitted that the only hope she had left was that Foreign Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw might be able to persuade his Jordanian counterpart into action.

Josephine, of Lower Darwen, has not spoken to her daughters for more than four months.

Salam, 11, and Noor, seven, have been made wards of court by a Blackburn judge after their father, Jehad Al-Momani, of Station Road, Great Harwood took them to his native Jordan during the summer holidays.

The girls 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.

Josephine, who lives with partner Paul Tomlinson and eldest daughter Emma, 14, said: "I had hoped with it being Christmas I might have been able to talk to them.

"I have a phone number for them but every time I rang up and started to speak the phone was just put down on me.

"It had made me very sad and angry. I just wanted to wish my daughters a Merry Christmas."

Josephine has already missed Noor's birthday -- despite being initially promised by Jehad they would be returned home in time for the start of the autumn school term.

British law is not recognised in Jordan -- a country which believes that daughters should always be with their father -- and Josephine has been told the best way to win her daughters back would be to go through the middle east country's court. Her daughters are believed to be living somewhere near Amman, the capital.

Josephine added: "I am just hoping Mr Straw can do something. He has promised to.

"It is all very complicated. In Jordan, it is normal for the girls to follow their father so I have no legal right to get them back.

"And they do not accept our laws over there. Here, the father was only allowed access to them."

Mr Straw has confirmed he had spoken about the case to his opposite number in Jordan when he went out on a whistle-stop tour of the region to gain support for the allied assault on Afghanistan.

He said: "I will continue to contact the Jordanian Government and do all I can to help."