SWEDISH police say they have arrested a woman accused of kidnapping her two children in a custody dispute with their Australian father.
The boys, aged 9 and 11, were handed over to their father after the woman was arrested in central Sweden, police spokesman Svante Melin said last night.
He said the woman, who is Swedish, had allegedly failed to return the children, who had been living with their father in Australia, after they came to visit her in October.
The case received attention in Swedish and Australian media as the father travelled to Sweden to search for the boys and pleaded for the public's help in locating them.
The father had custody of the children but the mother was granted access twice a year.
The father said in an interview in February he was furious with the Family Court for giving the boys' mother permission to take the children to Sweden.
He also said Australian authorities had done little to help find his sons.
The father said he had presented evidence to the Family Court indicating that should the boys' mother be given access to them in Sweden, she would not return them to Australia.
After his sons were not returned to him, the father asked Australian authorities to ask Swedish authorities to inform schools, hospitals and social welfare to be alert for any sign of the boys.
The boys' mother reportedly filed documents in a Swedish court in January in preparation for a defence of the case.
Agencies