Meredith suspect to be extradited

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Prosecutors in Germany have cleared the way for the extradition to Italy of a suspect in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

Rudy Hermann Guede was arrested in Germany last month after a bloody fingerprint linked him to the killing of the British student, who was found half-naked, with a stab wound to her neck at her villa in Perugia on November 2.

The extradition request had been granted and Guede, 20, would be transferred to Italy as soon as the Italian authorities agreed on a handover date, according to the chief prosecutor for the German city of Koblenz, Norbert Weise.

Weise said the extradition date would only be confirmed after it had been completed to protect the suspect's safety.

Perugia police chief Arturo De Felice confirmed the extradition decision and said the authorities were in the process of organizing travel arrangements for the suspect.

De Felice said that process would take at least 48 hours. He said Guede would be taken to the same Perugia prison as two other suspects being held in connection with the death -- Kercher's American housemate, Amanda Knox, 20, and Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 23.

All three deny any involvement in the killing.

Guede, who did not attempt to fight extradition, is the only suspect to have admitted being at Kercher's villa the night she died.

Guede, from Ivory Coast, admits having sexual relations with Kercher but claims the student was attacked by an unknown assailant when he was in the bathroom, according to his defense lawyers.

He claimed he confronted the attacker and fled the scene after he became afraid, the lawyers said.

He was arrested by chance after being caught on a train without a ticket by the German authorities in the town of Mainz, near Frankfurt, German prosecutors said.

A vaginal swab taken from the body of Kercher, 20, was matched to DNA from Guede, according to a source in the prosecutor's office in Perugia.

Guede was arrested after Italian police connected the suspect to a bloody fingerprint on a pillow at the crime scene. DNA tests have also linked him to the villa through skin cells found on toilet paper there, prosecutors say. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Diana Magnay in Berlin and Hada Messia in Rome contributed to this report.

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