A Victorian government MP denied entry to the US while on an official trip made two private journeys to Syria this year - more than he first revealed.

Khalil Eideh, who was born in Lebanon to Syrian parents, visited the wartorn country to see his elderly father, and paid for the trips himself, a government source confirmed on Friday.

It's been reported those trips took place in April and July, according to the Herald Sun.

When the upper house MP returned to Melbourne on July 29 after being stopped from entering the US, Mr Eideh told reporters he last went to Syria at Christmas.

A government spokeswoman said reports of Mr Eideh's Syrian trips were a distraction from opposition leader Matthew Guy's dinner with Tony Madafferi.

Mr Eideh was stopped at Canada's Vancouver airport while on a MPs study tour through Europe, Canada and the US.

Every MP on the trip had been issued with official passports and visas weeks before the trip.

He was not given a reason for the flight ban.

Mr Eideh signed a letter in 2002 professing loyalty to Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad while seeking to get the Syrian Honorary Consul in Melbourne removed.

Police Minister Lisa Neville said there was no evidence Mr Eideh did anything other than visit his 90-year-old father.

She did not know if the MP had told US authorities he had only been to Syria at Christmas.

"That's a matter he's going to have to deal with in his meetings with the American consulate and their passport control systems," she told reporters on Friday.

Mr Eideh has been contacted for comment.