Osama bin Laden`s son Omar, who has urged his father to give up violence, has asked for political asylum in Spain because his pacifist positions have put his life in danger in the Middle East, a source close to his entourage said Wednesday.

`He does not feel safe there. That is why he has applied for asylum,` the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case, told AFP.

Omar, 28, made the request on Monday immediately after he arrived at Madrid`s Barajas airport on an Eygpt Air flight from Cairo, where he currently lives with his British wife Zaina Alsabah bin Laden, 52, formerly known as Jane Felix-Browne, who he married in 2006.

The couple had tickets for a flight on another airline for later that day from Madrid to Casablanca in Morocco which they never intended to use.

Spain`s interior ministry confirmed the asylum request had been made on Tuesday, after top-selling daily newspaper El Pais reported on it.

Under Spanish asylum rules, the ministry has 72 hours to make a decision, and the petitioner has a right of appeal within 24 hours of receiving it.

Omar is being held at a detention centre at Barajas airport while the request is processed while his wife, who as a British citizen was allowed to enter Spanish territory, awaits the outcome of the asylum bid in Madrid.

In April British authorities turned down a request from Omar, a former scrap metal merchant, for a settlement visa.

At the time he said he wanted to live in England with Zaina at her home in northwestern England in the village of Moulton, near Northwich in Cheshire.

The British embassy in Cairo said it had based its decision on fears that his presence in the country would cause `considerable public concern`.

It is thought the authorities were referring to comments made by Omar that he could not be certain that his father was responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States that killed over 3,000 people.

He has appealed that decision. The results of the appeal are expected in early 2009.

Saudi-born Omar is the fourth of 11 children born to his father`s first wife, and he is one of 19 children Osama bin Laden has fathered.

He made headlines in January when he urged his father to renounce violence in an interview broadcast on CNN.

`I try and say to my father: `Try to find another way to help or find your goal. This bomb, this weapons, it`s not good to use it for anybody,`` said Omar, who sported dreadlocks that dangled halfway down his back.