RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) -- Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's son issued a plea yesterday for some country to accept members of his family seeking to leave Iran, where they have been held under house arrest since 2001.

After two of Omar bin Laden's siblings were released by Tehran to Syria in the past three months, he and his wife Zaina issued a statement pleading for a refuge for their other family members still in Iran, mentioning specifically Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

"The Iranian government has nowhere to send Omar's other siblings," they wrote.

"We beg of any country to help us, either from the east or the western world. These are just as much innocent victims as anyone else," they said.

"We ask again for the UAE or Qatar to please help them."

The letter received by AFP named 23 people still living in the Tehran compound where the family has been held since fleeing overland from Afghanistan in 2001 ahead of the September 11 Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States.

The group includes Osama bin Laden's sons, their wives, and children born both in Afghanistan and later in Tehran.

Zaina, Omar's British wife, said that including others like in-laws the entire group numbers more than 30.

Two of the family have been allowed to leave Iran. On December 25, Bakr bin Laden, 16, Osama's youngest son, flew to Damascus where he was reunited with his Syrian mother Najwa al-Ghanem, one of Osama bin Laden's several wives.

On March 17 Bakr's sister Iman, who had been living in the Saudi embassy in Tehran for three months after sneaking away from the compound, also flew to Damascus.

She was escorted by Ghanem, who had been allowed to travel to Tehran to meet her. The mother and daughter had not seen each other for nine years.

Omar bin Laden says that, despite accusations from other family members and some Al-Qaeda statements, the family has been treated well in Iran.

In the guarded compound, "They were well treated, but had no communication with the outside world, other than a TV and occasional accompanied trips outside," the statement said.

He also says none of them have Qaeda sympathies.

"None of the siblings liked war or violence, all they ever wanted was a normal life with a normal family. They all wanted peace," the statement says.

It listed four sons of Osama bin Laden -- Osman,27; Saad, 30; Mohammed, 25; and Hamza, 19 -- and one daughter, Fatima, 24, as still in Tehran.

Ghanem is the mother of all the children except Hamza.

All are living in the Tehran compound with spouses and 12 children of their own, all under 11 years of age.

The statement said that Iran is willing to release them all if there is a place for them to go.

"Once we have any confirmation, the Iranians will put them on a flight. Najwa and her children will be together once again."

Asked last week whether the family could go live in Osama bin Laden's native Saudi Arabia, Zaina told AFP Riyadh that family members were not expecting to go to Saudi Arabia.

However, she said, Riyadh, which has extremely poor relations with Gulf rival Tehran, had been helpful in securing Iman's exit.