The love affair between the American student Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who together face trial on December 4 for murdering the British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, is "over", according to Mr Sollecito. He also said that he could not recall the events of the night of the murder "precisely" because he had smoked so much cannabis.

Speaking to his lawyers in prison at Terni in Umbria he said that Ms Knox remained "a dear friend" and he wished her well. "She is someone with whom I have shared a tragedy which is bigger than both of us and which has become transformed into a gigantic misunderstanding," Mr Sollecito said.

He added: "But our love is finished, without any problems. I have seen her in court, we smiled at each, she is still beautiful. But our love is over. In any case the situation in which we find ourselves is so absurd and so serious that to talk of love or feelings makes no sense." His remarks were reported today by Il Messaggero, the Rome daily.

Yesterday, in remarks made to her lawyers and an Italian Parliamentary deputy and also reported in the Italian press Ms Knox, 21, said that her real love was her American boyfriend, David, whom she refers to as "DJ". When they had parted, he to go to China and she to Italy, they had agreed that they would both consider themselves "free" and would look at their relationship again when they were re-united, she said.

She told Edda Mellas and Curt Knox, her mother and father, who visited her in prison after she was sent for trial, that Raffaele was a "sweet and intelligent boy" to whom she had been attracted because of his resemblance to Harry Potter.

In court however he had seemed "broken" she said, according to La Repubblica. "We were together for only two weeks before this hell began. There was no time to get to know each other better. They were the first steps in a relationship."

Mr Sollecito, 24, said that his only aim was "to leave here, to start again, to find my family again". His lawyers said that he had read and re-read the 17-page document issued by the pre trial judge, Paolo Micheli, on Wednesday in which he turned down a defence plea for Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito to be released into house arrest pending the trial, arguing that they might flee or re-offend.

Mr Sollecito had covered the document in annotations, the lawyers said, especially the passages in which Judge Micheli described Mr Sollecito as incapable of making his own decisions and "indifferent to the value of human life". "That is not me, that is not me," Mr Sollecito had said repeatedly.

He was also said to be "furious" that a psychologist discussing the case on Italian television had wrongly suggested that Mr Sollecito had downloaded child pornography on his computer, confusing the Perugia murder with another high-profile murder case in Italy.

Mr Sollecito said that he had not expected to remain in prison, and had been so sure he would be released that he had kept only summer clothes in his cell. "I did not expect so harsh a sentence. Where would I run to? Where would I go? Me, kill again?"

Asked about Rudy Guede, the Ivory Coast immigrant accused of the murder together with Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito, who was this week sentenced to 30 years in jail under fast-track procedures, Mr Sollecito said: "the only thing I can say is that when I saw him for the first time in court I thought he would be taller." He said that no one had been able to prove that he, Ms Knox and Mr Guede knew each other or had met before the crime.

"I had never seen him before, that is the simple truth," Mr Sollecito said. In her remarks yesterday however Ms Knox said she had met Mr Guede "three or four times", although she "hardly knew him". "Rudy's not telling the truth," she said. "He's made false accusations against me. I was not there, he's a liar." The pre-trial judge has said he accepts the prosecution "logic" that all three were involved in the assault.

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