US student Amanda Knox has hired a top lawyer used by politicians including Barack Obama and Tony Blair to negotiate a book deal about her four years behind bars in Italy, her spokesman said.

The 24-year-old, who flew home in October after being acquitted over the gruesome 2007 killing of British student Meredith Kercher, has engaged Washington attorney Robert Barnett to discuss the project with publishers.

Mr Barnett, of the law firm Williams & Connolly, will “represent her in discussions with various book publishers who have expressed an interest in Amanda writing a book,” said Ms Knox’s spokesman.

He is “one of the premier authors’ representatives in the world” whose clients have included Mr Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, former British Premier Blair, Queen Noor of Jordan, and Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, it said. A court in Perugia, northern Italy freed both Ms Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito on October 3, after acquitting them over the 2007 killing.

Ms Knox returned to her home in Seattle, Washington, the next day, and has spent the last two months readjusting to normal life while being pursued by journalists and photographers eager for details about her ordeal, and her future plans.

Experts say Ms Knox – dubbed Foxy Knoxy by the tabloid press during her four-year incarceration – could make millions of dollars by selling her story either by writing a book, or by selling the TV or film rights.

Her father Curt Knox has said she plans to use her experience to help people facing similar plights to hers, although she also wants to resume her studies – she was in Italy as part of a language course.