Martha Stewart denied visa to travel to Britain

Martha Stewart listens to former U.S. President Bill Clinton describe her pledge during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York September 27, 2007. Stewart has been denied entry to Britain because of her 2003 U.S. conviction for lying about a stock sale.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart has been denied entry to Britain because of her 2004 U.S. conviction for lying about a stock sale.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc, the company founded by Stewart, said the 66-year-old businesswoman had been planning to travel to Britain for business meetings.

"She has engagements with English companies and business leaders and hopes this can be resolved so that she will be able to visit soon," Charles Koppelman, chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, said in a statement.

A spokesman for Britain's Home Office, which runs the UK Border Agency, said it does not comment on individual cases.

"We continue to oppose the entry to the UK of individuals where we believe their presence in the United Kingdom is not conducive to the public good or where they have been found guilty of serious criminal offenses abroad," he said.

Stewart was found guilty of conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction of agency proceedings -- all stemming from her sale of stock in biotech company ImClone Systems Inc. on December 27, 2001. She was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of house arrest.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by Philip Barbara)