LONDON (AP) - Britain is appealing a court's decision to allow Snoop Dogg into the country, the Border Agency said Friday.

He was barred from Britain after he was arrested on charges of violent disorder at London's Heathrow Airport in 2006. But the hip-hop heavyweight successfully appealed the ban and received entry clearance from an asylum and immigration tribunal in January.

The Border Agency said Friday it would challenge the ruling at a hearing next week.

In March 2007, Snoop Dogg (real name: Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr.) was forced to cancel a tour of Britain with fellow rap icon Sean ''Diddy'' Combs after authorities denied him a visa.

That followed an incident in which Snoop Dogg and five others were arrested on charges of violent disorder and starting a brawl at Heathrow in which seven officers were injured. Trouble flared when some in his party were denied entry to British Airways' first-class lounge at the airport.

In April 2007, Snoop Dogg was refused entry into Australia, with then-Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews saying the rapper ''doesn't seem the sort of bloke we want in this country.''

A former associate of the Los Angeles gang the Crips, Snoop Dogg built his early career on recordings offering gritty details of gang life.

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