Polanski 'will face sex charge'

Roman Polanski appears set to return to America to stand trial on charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

The Oscar-nominated film director, now 68, was arrested in 1977 for allegedly having sex with the girl at Jack Nicholson's home. He was charged with six offences, including rape.

Polanski, whose films include Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, pleaded guilty to sex with a minor, but fled to France before his sentencing.

According to a Los Angeles TV station today, he is planning to return after agreeing a deal with the LA district attorney's office that he will avoid a prison sentence for the sex charges.

The district attorney refused to comment, but court records show Polanski's lawyer has met the DA and a judge twice in the last year in an attempt to find a way for his client to return to America.

Polanski, whose pregnant wife Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the Manson family in 1969, even has support from the girl he had sex with. Now 38, she says: "I have no objections to his return to the US."