Trying to connect using ssh2_auth_pubkey_file()

Question

I am trying to make a php script that runs on the terminal that would connect to a remote server by ssh and retrieve a file. this is my code so far

#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php
$cwd = dirname(__FILE__).'/';
$filename = 'retrive-this.file';
$host = 'hostip';

$connection = ssh2_connect($host, 22, array('hostkey'=>'ssh-rsa'));
$methods = ssh2_auth_pubkey_file($connection, 'remoteuser',
                                 $cwd.'ssh/id_rsa.pub',
                                 $cwd.'ssh/id_rsa', "it's an inception");
var_dump($methods);

//ssh2_scp_recv($connection, "/remote/server/path/to/$filename", $cwd.$filename);
?>

for now I am having problems with the ssh2_auth_pubkey_file() function, when I run the script it returns this:

PHP Warning:  ssh2_auth_pubkey_file(): Authentication failed for remoteuser using public key in /home/tonyl/Projects/get-file-ssh.php on line 10
bool(false)

The key files have permission -rw-r--r-- (644). Also the public key is already added to the remoteuser's authorized keys. I am able to ssh using the ssh command as normal, so I don't think it is a ssh authorization problem, but who knows. I am new to ssh and the ssh2 php library.

I can connect using ssh2_auth_password() if I enable it in the remote sshd_config file, but I don't want to do that since it decreases security tranfer.

Any ideas of what I can do.