Kelly Rutherford -- Ordered to Court ... With Kids

Kelly Rutherford has a problem after declaring she will NOT surrender her kids to her ex-husband ... a court has now ordered her to appear Tuesday ... with the children.

TMZ has learned, a New York judge just made the order at the behest of ex-hubby Daniel Giersch, who claims Kelly is a child abductor who has no right to keep the kids beyond the visitation period which ended last week.

Kelly says she's been to court in L.A. and New York and the judges in both states have said they have no jurisdiction over the case, therefore no one can order her to return the kids.

Giersch begs to differ, claiming he has a custody order that's legally binding on her, so she's now nothing more than a criminal.

The judge has said Kelly needs to be notified by 3 PM today about tomorrow's hearing, but service can be accomplished by email or a secured message to Facebook.