In Washington: Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama earlier this month
House arrest: Roman Polanksi enjoys a sunny lunch with friends in Gstaad, Switzerland last week
It follows French head of state Nicolas Sarkozy hand-delivering a personal letter to Barack Obama from the film director asking to be spared jail � a move which apparently failed because the American President refused even to read the note.
Lawyers for 76-year-old Polanski applied to have his child sex case heard in absentia, meaning he could remain under house arrest in Switzerland.
But a California appeals court rejected the bid outright yesterday, paving the way for the extradition process to continue.
If it is successful Polanski is likely to fly to America as a captured fugitive with federal agents in September, said a Swiss judicial source.
Polanski is wanted on child sex charges after fleeing the U.S. 32 years ago following the rape of a 13-year-old girl.
He was arrested in Switzerland last September as he travelled to a film festival and is fighting extradition while under house arrest in his luxury chalet in the ski resort of Gstaad.
His latest appeal includes a sworn statement by his victim, Samantha Geimer, saying that the 1977 charge should be dropped.
But the California 2nd District Court of Appeal dismissed Polanski�s application without issuing an opinion.
They also rejected the petition by Miss Geimer, who is now a mother of three living in Hawaii. Allowing prosecution witnesses to end cases by simply forgiving a criminal would set an unacceptable precedent, the court heard.
Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said Polanski will only be extradited if he receives a sentence longer than six months.
Polanski has admitted plying the teenage Miss Geimer with champagne and a sedative drug before having sex with her at the home of film star Jack Nicholson in March 1977.
He was indicted on six charges, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy, and pleaded guilty to unlawful intercourse with a minor as part of a judicial bargaining process.
But Polanski fled to his native France before he could be sentenced, having already spent 42 days in an American prison.
He spent the next three decades evading American authorities.
Polanski, whose main home is in Paris, also spent two months in a Swiss jail immediately after police arrested him.
The Oscar-winning director of Rosemary�s Baby and The Pianist could still appeal to Supreme Court in California in an eleventh hour bid to stop extradition.
Mr Sarkozy�s intervention has been revealed by the French political weekly L�Express.
The magazine read: �In an astonishing act of backroom diplomacy, Nicolas Sarkozy hand-delivered a letter from Roman Polanski to Barack Obama last week on the sidelines of the anti-nuclear proliferation summit in Washington.�
But a White House source suggested that Mr Obama did not even bother reading the letter, as it was not delivered according to diplomatic protocol.
�He would have no intention on interfering in the judicial process anyway,� said the source.
Polanski and his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, are both close to French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. All are well known members of Paris�s �artistic� community.
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