POLICE searching for two girls abducted and taken to Jordan by their father have sent them text messages in a bid to make sure they are safe.

The move came after repeated attempts to ring the mobile telephone number used by Noor and Salam Al-Momani in a call home last week failed to get a response.

Today their distraught mother Josephine Bromley, 33, of Lower Darwen, released the last photographs of the girls before they were taken away by her ex-husband Jehad Al-Momani, 37, of Station Road, Great Harwood, during an access visit.

Noor, six, and Salam, 10, smiled for the camera as they prepared to finish Lower Darwen Primary School for the summer but just weeks later they were flown from Heathrow to their father's home country.

Miss Bromley, who lives with partner Paul Tomlinson, spoke to her children last Wednesday but said the call was cut short by Mr Al-Momani after Noor, who is due to celebrate her seventh birthday on August 12, became emotional.

Repeated attempts to contact the girls on the same number have so far failed, with Miss Bromley either getting an answerphone message or just a dead signal.

Police are unsure whether their R U OK? text messages to the girls have been received but today Mr Tomlinson said: "One of the girl's friends sent a text message to her asking if they were OK and she received notification that the message had arrived at the phone.

"We don't have a mobile phone and we are not sure if the girls would be able to respond if it was from us anyway. We don't know if the father has the phone or them.

"The number we had wasn't the number they use in this country but the girls did say they were talking on their mobile phone so the father may have changed the number once he got out there.

"We are worried that we have now lost all verbal communication with them." Police in Lancashire are liaising with officers in Jordan to find Mr Al-Momani. A search of his home town, near the capital Amman, was due to be carried out by Jordanian police at the weekend but officers in this country but were today still waiting to hear if anything was found.

Chief Insp Neil Smith said: "Our main concern is that the girls are safe and we are hoping to hear something from Jordan this week. Until then we will continue to try and make contact with he girls and their father."

Miss Bromley, who split from the girls' father in 1995 and has a 14-year-old daughter called Emma from another relationship, has spoken to the girls twice since they were taken.

Noor asked for a TV programme to be recorded and said she wanted to be home in time for her birthday. Factory worker Mr Al-Momani, who has dual nationality, had won access to the take his daughters on holiday during the first week of the school holidays.

He had pledged in court only to take them on day trips, said Mr Tomlinson. Miss Bromley also said she had warned her children never to get on an aeroplane with their dad.

She said: "I told them to scream and shout and do everything to alert attention. They got on the plane, they told me, because the father said he was taking them to Alton Towers after a shopping trip in London."

Miss Bromley found out he had taken her daughters abroad when he rang her from his former homeland in Jordan last Monday -- the day they were supposed to return to their Lower Darwen home.

Although he is in breach of a court order in this country, Jordan's government does not recognise British law so he has not committed an offence in the Middle East country.

Mr Tomlinson said today they were pinning their hopes on Foreign Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw.

He added: "We are hoping Mr Straw will be able to apply pressure to get the girls back. We have yet to talk to him because he is on holiday."

He added: "At the very least we want to make sure we know where the children are by making certain that their father does not leave Jordan."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We are aware of this situation and will be working to bring this matter to a successful conclusion."