The last time Alexandra Gould saw her two daughters they were kicking and screaming and wanting their mum.

That was five months ago in Ibiza.

Now Kaili, nine, and Jasmine, three, are 3,000 miles away in Florida, USA, and their mum is fighting from her parents' mid-Essex home to regain custody.

Mrs Gould, 33, is one of thousands of parents who are engaged in the same battle through the world's courts with support from charity Reunite.

Her plight was highlighted in BBC's Panorama programme last night.

She originally went to Florida to study business management at St Petersburg College. A year later she had married Fred Gould and applied for permanent residency and was allowed to work.

Kaili was born in March 1990 but the marriage turned sour less than a year later and Mrs Gould was locked out of her family home and her husband filed for divorce.

A day visit ended in trauma when her husband refused to return Kaili. Her lawyer applied to the courts and she was given temporary custody - but an order was imposed that Kaili was not removed from the state.

In September 1995 second daughter Jasmine was born but the relationship with her father Michael Delgaty had already ended.

"In May 1997 I became aware of an imminent change in US immigration law and was advised by my lawyer to go to England and apply for a business visa to return."

But her husband had applied for an order to return the children. She was arrested and charged with child abduction and told the children would be returned to the USA.

She decided to flee with her daughters to Ibiza, where the girls both attended school. Her husband tracked them down using a special private detective.

Her husband successfully gained custody of Kaili through the Spanish courts with an American "seek and find" order. Jasmine was also returned to the United States.

Numerous telephone calls, e-mails, letters and support from MP Sir Alan Haselhurst, have failed to secure a visa from the United States embassy to visit the children.

In the meantime she continues her long distance relationship on the telephone with Kaili and Jasmine - who lives with Fred Gould and his new family.

Because of the time difference she stays up to 2am to speak to them each day.

Mr Gould spent 150,000 dollars on securing the return and custody of his daughter and said in the programme he expected Jasmine to be living with her father within the next few months and visiting Kaili at his home on a regular basis.

Mrs Gould goes on telephoning lawyers in the United States from her parents' Felsted home.

"My heart is broken. I need to go to America to set up a custody hearing for both of them. I want my family back together and if I win this I will settle in the United States because their daddies are there," she said.

My heart is broken. I need to go to America to set up a custody hearing for both of them. I want my family back together.

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