Kercher murder case: Amanda Knox mulls Italy retrial return

"My lawyers have said that I don't have to... I'm still considering it, to be honest," she told USA Today.

Knox, 25, also went on US television to publicly protest her innocence as she released her autobiography.

Last month, an Italian court overturned her acquittal along with that of her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

Meredith Kercher, 21, was found stabbed to death in the flat she shared with Knox - an exchange student - in Perugia in November 2007. Prosecutors say she died in a brutal sex game that went wrong.

Another man - Rudy Guede from Ivory Coast - was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to 16 years for the killing.

The case has drawn intense media interest in Italy, the UK and the US, and put the Italian police and justice system under great scrutiny.

Knox told USA Today on Tuesday that the thought of returning to Italy for the retrial was "scary".

"But it's also important for me to say: 'This is not just happening far away from and doesn't matter to me. So, somehow, I feel it's important for me to convey that. And if my presence is what is necessary to convey that, then I'll go."

The Italian courts cannot compel her to return for the retrial but they could request her extradition - at which point it would be up to the US authorities to determine her fate, our correspondent says.

In a separate interview with ABC TV, Knox said claithat she was a "she-devil" and "heartless manipulator" were all wrong. She added that what happened to her "was surreal but it could've happened to anyone". "It's one thing to be called certain things in the media and it's another thing to be sitting in a courtroom fighting for your life while people are calling you a devil," she said.

"For all intents and purposes I was a murderer, whether I was or not. I had to live with the idea that that would be my life."

In a reference to the Kercher family, Knox said she wanted them to understand "that my need for justice for myself is not in contradiction with theirs". She said she hoped "that eventually I can have their permission to pay respects at her grave".

The interview was timed to coincide with the release of Knox's autobiography, Waiting to Be Heard, for which she was reportedly paid more than $4 million. In the book, she maintains that on the night of Meredith Kercher's death she was at Raffaele Sollecito's flat smoking marijuana and watching a movie.