Suspect in Meredith's murder held in Germany

ROME (Reuters) - Police in Germany have arrested a man in connection with the murder in Italy of British student Meredith Kercher, Italian and German police said on Tuesday.

Italian police identified the fourth suspect in the case as 21-year-old Rudy Hermann Guede from the Ivory Coast and said he had been arrested by Interpol.

"This morning Interpol arrested this young man in Germany, near Wiesbaden. Checks are now being carried out," said a spokesman for the Italian police in Rome.

German police confirmed the suspect was arrested in or near the town of Mainz. Mainz and Wiesbaden are close to each other in western Germany.

Kercher, a 21-year-old exchange student, was found dead in her bedroom with a deep cut to the throat in the university city of Perugia, about 130 km (80 miles) north of Rome, on November 2.

Her American flatmate Amanda Knox, 20, Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, and a Congolese man, Lumumba Diya, 37, who runs a bar in Perugia, have been in police custody since November 6 on suspicion of involvement in the killing.

Italian media said Guede had been living with an Italian family in Perugia but went missing after the murder.

Prosecutors believe Kercher, on a year's study trip from Leeds University, was killed because she refused to have sex with one or more assailants.

The three suspects held in Italy all say they are innocent, although Knox initially accused Lumumba of the killing and said she had had to cover her ears to drown out her friend's screams, according to media leaks of the investigation.