Lawyers acting for American student Amanda Knox, her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and Ivorian Rudy Hermann Guede will put their arguments before Italy's highest court in Rome.

The three have been held since November last year on suspicion of sexually assaulting and murdering Leeds University student Miss Kercher, 21, in Perugia.

She was killed in the house she shared with Knox and several others in Via della Pergola on the night of November 1.

Her throat had been slit and police said there was evidence of a violent sexual encounter.

Knox, 20, Sollecito, 24, and Guede, 21, all deny involvement in her death and are yet to be charged with any crime.

Police say they have forensic evidence linking all three to the murder.

Late last year judges in Perugia rejected defence arguments that the trio should be released from prison while officers continue to investigate.

They ordered that the three could remain in jail for up to a year before being charged.

But lawyers will go before judges in a closed hearing at the Corte Suprema di Cassazione in the Italian capital, hoping to overturn the decision.