Madonna and Guy haggle over visitation rights

Madonna and Guy Ritchie remain locked in a legal battle over custody of their children, the Evening Standard revealed.

The couple, who divorced last month, have still to thrash out an agreement over access rights and where the children should live.

A source close to the case said "Both sets of lawyers have still got their heads down. It is very complicated."

Negotiations over the children are difficult because of Madonna's determination to move back to the US, made even more complex by the fact that the father of her eldest child lives in New York.

Madonna and Ritchie have one natural child from their eight year-marriage - Rocco, eight. They adopted another son, David, three, from Malawi. It has been reported that Lourdes, 12, has been pulled out of the LycÈe Francais Charles de Gaulle School in South Kensington while Madonna has allegedly been looking at a French school in New York.

The chances of Ritchie ensuring his sons stay in London - against Madonna's wishes - are slim, but he is in a strong negotiating position. The source added: "Ways need to be found to tie up claims both in New York and in London."

Another source said Ritchie, who left the marriage with almost none of his wife's estimated £300 million (Dh1.6 billion) fortune, may insist on Madonna buying him an apartment in New York as part of a deal to allow the children to live in the city.

She cannot take them to live permanently in the United States unless Ritchie or an English court gives permission.

The source said Madonna, 50, had still to sit down with film director Ritchie, 10 years her junior, to work out whether the children would live permanently in New York or stay in London, where they have grown up.

- Evening Standard