Britain's Supreme Court on Thursday said it had rejected an application by Dubai's ruler to challenge a decision to publish rulings relating to a legal battle with his estranged wife.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, 70, applied to the UK's highest court to block the publication of two judgments in the case against his wife, Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, 45.

The case has been heard behind closed doors in the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales and concerns the welfare of their children. Lawyers for Sheikh Mohammed, who is also vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, and owner of the Godolphin horse racing stable, argued that publication was "wrong in law".

But the Supreme Court said in a statement that three judges considered the application to challenge the decision "does not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance". "The Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal," it added.

Princess Haya, who is the half-sister of Jordan's King Abdullah II and an Olympic equestrian, and media organisations opposed the sheikh's appeal to the higher court. She has applied for the children to be made wards of the court and one of the children to be made subject to a forced marriage protection order, preventing their marriage without consent.

Separately, she has asked for a non-molestation order for herself. Reporting restrictions remain in place in the case.