CAIRO: Osama bin Laden's son Omar is to appeal after his application to move to Britain with his British wife was rejected because his presence might cause "considerable public concern," his wife said yesterday.

Omar bin Laden, 27, married Zaina Alsabah, 52, formerly known as Jane Felix-Browne, in Omar's homeland of Saudi Arabia last year and the couple had hoped to move to Britain to be near the rest of Zaina's family.

Zaina Alsabah said that the couple's lawyers are appealing the decision, which she described as "illegal" and prompted by a flurry of recent media reports about and interviews with Omar Osama bin Laden.

A statement from the couple's attorneys cited an unnamed British consular official in Cairo as saying that bin Laden's son was rejected because his presence in Britain would cause "public concern" due to statements he has made to the Press.

Omar, who says he hasn't seen his father since he left Afghanistan in 1999 at the age of 19, now lives in Cairo with Alsabah, whom he married in 2006. The couple wants to settle in Britain. Omar applied for a residency visa last October and was interviewed at the British Embassy in Cairo on April 17.

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"He didn't even know about 7/7. He said 'Now I know about it of course I'm sorry.' It's not Omar's fault. There are obvious reasons he won't say his father, or anyone else, is a terrorist." UK-based lawyer Amjad Malik released the embassy's assessment which said his "exclusion from the United Kingdom is conducive to the public good." The British embassy said it did not comment on individual visa applications.

"Omar is a good man - he's fighting for peace," Zaina said.

"He's always condemned bombings and the killing of civilians, no matter where they're from." Lawyer Malik said that "an individual's rights have been overridden by newspaper articles and his biological relationship to his father... this refusal is discriminatory because he has no control over choosing his parents."