A National Parole Board has denied parole to a mother who set her children on fire, killing her five-year-old daughter and badly burning her three-year-old son.

The board refused to grant day parole to Donna Hysop because it says she still denies any involvement in setting the fire.

Hysop has always claimed her children started the fire themselves, but a jury convicted her of second-degree murder in 1998.

She was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.

The parole board says Hysop, who's now 42 years old, still poses a risk to the public.