Two girls have taken refuge at Belgium?s embassy in Tehran, abandoning their Iranian father and asking to be reunited with their mother in Belgium in a family dispute that threatens to become a diplomatic row as well.

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said yesterday he had ordered the embassy to keep the girls until their case was resolved. ?We absolutely owe these kids total protection,?? he told the local RTBF radio. Yasmine Pourashemi, 15, and her sister Sara, aged six, went to the embassy on Tuesday after eluding their Iranian father, who has kept them in the country since October, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

They have both Belgian and Iranian citizenship. The father, Shahab, faces an international warrant for his arrest for failing to return the girls to their divorced mother in Belgium.