A MOTHER will today make a last-ditch bid to stop her four-year-old daughter being taken to live with her estranged husband in France.

Sarah Annis, 38, has until 2pm to ask the Court of Appeal to overrule a French court order that her daughter Mathilda must return to live in France with her father.

Mathilda's father, Dominique Volant, 45, has not seen her since July 1998, when Ms Annis left the family home in Saint Nazaire in Brittany and returned to live in Wiltshire.

The tug of love battle started in September 1999, when Mr Volant won an order in a French Court saying Mathilda should live with him in France.

The High Court in London later confirmed Mr Volant's right to custody of his daughter, but Ms Annis failed to hand Mathilda over at Pewsey Police Station as arranged in March this year.

And police trying to find her discovered she had disappeared from her home in High Street, Burbage.

Mr Volant has since made extensive efforts to trace his wife and daughter, including walking round Marlborough with pictures of them.

He has even taken the unusual step of instructing Swindon solicitors Thring Townsend to issue a public appeal to anyone who knows Mathilda's where-abouts.

Thring Townsend family law specialist, Richard Sharp, said: "By their very nature, these cases aren't usually public issues, but because all the other avenues have been exhausted, he felt an appeal was appropriate."

Mr Sharp believes Ms Annis is now living at her former address in Burbage, and has managed to freeze the order asking Mathilda to be returned to France.

"The situation we have is that she's managed to get an order staying the process until she files an appeal, which she has to do by lunchtime tomorrow," Mr Sharp said. The earlier order forcing Ms Annis to hand over Mathilda was also upheld by a senior French court, and given weight in England by an international agreement for the enforcement of foreign court orders.