Sollecito: Amanda Knox and I speak regularly

The 21-year-old was found semi-naked and with her throat cut in the bedroom of the house she shared with Knox in Italy in 2007.

The 24-year-old American and Italian Sollecito, 27, had been seeing each other for a week before the murder.

They were initially sentenced to 26 and 25 years, respectively, after being found guilty of murdering and sexually assaulting Kercher but they were released on appeal earlier this month.

Breaking his silence for the first time in an interview with glossy Italian weekly Oggi, computer studies graduate Sollecito, said: "We need each other.

"We speak to each other on the phone and write to each other every day."

Then speaking of his invitation to visit Knox in her hometown of Seattle, Sollecito added: "I will certainly go and see Amanda.

"She asked me over and I accepted with pleasure and there is no saying I will wait until Christmas.

"I could go earlier - I could go at any moment. I really want to see her again, to speak with her and look into her eyes.

"We need to speak and write to each other to try and understand what happened to us and to look forward to a future that appeared broken forever but instead we can still build on.

"We have so many things to say to each other. We spent four years in a circle of hell, we suffered unspeakably and it ruined our lives."

Knox and Sollecito, from Bisceglie near Bari, were originally found guilty in 2009 of the murder which had taken place two years earlier in the Italian hilltop town of Perugia.

However the appeal heard how the original evidence used to convict them was flawed and contaminated.

They were freed after an independent forensic report ordered by the judge condemned the forensic investigation.

Key to the case was a 30cm kitchen knife found in Sollecito's apartment and which was said to have DNA from Knox on the handle and from Kercher on the blade.

But the report said the amount on the knife was so low it should not be used to convict Knox.

The report confirmed it was her DNA on the handle but she argued she had used it to cook with.

DNA from Sollecito which was found on Meredith's bloodied bra clasp was also dismissed as it emerged it had been left at the murder scene for six weeks before being collected, leaving it open to contamination.

Knox has kept a low profile since she was freed and is said to be negotiating a TV interview deal with an American network which could make her $1m - with the potential of earning up to 10 times that amount.

Prosecutors in Perugia have said they will appeal the decision but they will have to wait until the judge's written ruling on the verdict is published sometime in the New Year.

Kercher from Coulsdon, Surrey, was a Leeds University student and was in Perugia for her degree course.

She had only been in Italy for two months before she was murdered in November 2007.

A third man, Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, 24, was convicted of murder and sexual assault after a fast track trial in 2008.

He was originally sentenced to 30 years but this was later reduced to 16 on appeal.