An American student accused of killing her British flatmate in Italy is taking legal action to block a book about her love life on the grounds it will prejudice the murder trial this week.

Amanda Knox is claiming €500,000 (£455,000) in compensation for damage allegedly caused by the "prurient" book, Amanda and the Others: Lives Lost around the Perugia Murder, published last month by a Corriere della Sera crime journalist. She also wants it withdrawn from bookshops.

Her lawyers said that the book, extracts from which were published in the newspaper, contained details about Ms Knox's sex life that was ''not in any way useful or considered relevant to the investigation".

These had been "reported in a prurient manner, aimed solely at arousing the morbid imagination of readers. This crosses the limits of legitimate exercise of the rights of the press,'' the lawyers said.

Ms Knox had suffered from a ''smear campaign'' during ''incredible and misleading'' media coverage that was ''in violation of the general principles safeguarding personal information and dignity", they claimed.

The media had done "everything in its power" to create "an absolutely negative portrayal" of their client. The lawyers have filed complaints with a Milan court and with Italy's privacy watchdog.

Last month there was an outcry when it emerged that Ms Knox had taken part in a film shot in the prison and funded by the Umbrian region as part of a prisoner rehabilitation programme. The film was to have been shown at a Perugia film festival but was withdrawn at the last minute.

Ms Knox, 21, goes on trial on Friday together with her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 24. Both deny any involvement in the murder of Meredith Kercher. A third person charged, Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast immigrant, was sentenced to 30 years in jail in October under fast track procedures for his part in the killing and sexual assault.

Over 140 journalists have asked for accreditation at the trial, although the judge has yet to decide whether it should be closed to the public, as requested by lawyers for the Kercher family.

Ms Kercher was found semi-naked with her throat cut on November 2, 2007, in her bedroom at the whitewashed hillside cottage that she shared with Ms Knox and two Italian women. The prosecution alleges that she was killed when Guede, Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito tried to force her to take part in a drugs fuelled ''group sex game'' which went wrong and ended in murder.

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