WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A Florida appeals court has temporarily blocked the removal of Anna Nicole Smith's body to the Bahamas.

Virgie Arthur, Smith's mother, has been engaged in a legal battle over where Smith should be buried. Arthur wants her daughter buried in her native Texas.

Smith's companion, Howard K. Stern, wants Smith buried in the Bahamas, alongside her 20-year-old son who died in Bahamas last year of complication from drug use.

Smith's body remains in Fort Lauderdale, a few miles from where she was found dead Feb. 8 in her hotel room.

Arthur's lawyers wanted the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach to reconsider a Broward County judge's ruling in which he refused to reconsider a decision to let an attorney representing Smith's 5-month-old baby decide where the child should be buried.

The appeals court issued a stay Monday afternoon, which in effect blocks the removal of the body to the Bahamas.

The ruling backs up Judge Larry Seidlin's actions from earlier in the day Monday.

Arthur had asked Seidlin to change his mind about turning the body over to Smith's companion Howard K. Stern, but Seidlin refused.

Meanwhile, those involved in the three-way battle for custody of Smith's infant daughter, Dannielynn, will now wait at least until next month for a resolution.

An attorney for Smith's estate said that the judge presiding over the dispute in the Bahamas has scheduled a hearing for March. The battle involves Smith's companion, her estranged mother and an ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, who claims he's the father.

Arthur, is trying to get guardianship from Stern, who is listed as the father on the birth certificate. An attorney for Birkhead said she expects DNA testing.

An attorney for Arthur said she has asked to see her granddaughter, who could inherit a fortune because of her late mother's marriage to an elderly multimillionaire who later died.

But the judge said that Arthur needs permission from Stern.

In addition, TMZ.com has reported that Birkhead, was allowed to visit with Dannielynn over the weekend.

According to TMZ, Birkhead and Stern are in settlement negotiations over the paternity matter. But Birkhead's attorney, Debra Opri, told TMZ that "paternity and custody of the little girl are not negotiable."