The 38-year-old was freed this afternoon after prosecutors said they could find no evidence linking him to the murder, Sky News has learned.
The news comes after another suspect was arrested in Germany.
Rudy Hermann Guede was snared after being tricked by police using the Facebook website.
He was persuaded to return from Germany to Italy when officers emailed him on the social networking site, pretending to be a friend.
They had planned to swoop on him as he crossed the border, but Guede was arrested on a train while still in Germany when he was stopped for not having a ticket.
The 20-year-old was reported to be the fifth person in the student's flat in Perugia on the night she was killed.
A bloody fingerprint found on Miss Kercher's pillow is said to have led detectives to Guede, who is thought to have left Perugia for Milan after she died.
Prosecutors believe the Leeds University exchange student from Coulsdon, Surrey, whose body was found on November 2, was sexually assaulted and murdered after refusing to take part in an extreme sex game.
Meredith's American flatmate Amanda Knox, 20, and Knox's Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 23, are still being held.
Lawyers for the two suspects - who deny any involvement - said they hoped news of the fourth suspect could result in their clients' release.
Sollecito's lawyer, Tiziano Tedeschi, said the lead on the pillowcase traces was "good news". He added: "This is the first suspect, not the fourth."
Guede, originally from Ivory Coast, was reportedly adopted by a family living in Perugia, although they are said to have since broken all contact with him.
He is believed to have a conviction for drug dealing and was popular with foreign students in the town.
A Congolese bar owner arrested in Italy in connection with the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been released from custody.
Diya "Patrick" Lumumba was freed due to lack of evidence just hours after another suspect was arrested in Germany. Police detained Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, for travelling without a ticket on a train near Wiesbaden.
Claudia Matteini, the same judge who remanded Mr Lumumba in custody two weeks ago, ordered his release on Tuesday afternoon following a request from state prosecutors.
"He was jailed with the shame of being a monster and today he comes out with his head held high," his lawyer Giuseppe Sereni, who escorted him from prison, told Italian news agency Ansa.
As 38-year-old Mr Lumumba left custody in Perugia, he said: "I am happy to be going home. I thank God."
Detectives began a manhunt for Guede after finding a bloody fingerprint on a pillow in the apartment where Miss Kercher was killed which did not match the three people in custody.
In a bizarre video clip he posted on the YouTube website, Guede appears gurning and moaning at the camera, before saying: "I'm a vampire, I'm Dracula. I'm going to suck your blood."
A spokesman for German prosecutors in Koblenz, who have taken over Guede's case, said he would appear in court on Wednesday, and a judge would rule whether or not he can be kept in custody on the Italian warrant.
If the judge orders him to be detained, Koblenz prosecutors will begin preparing a case for his extradition.
Perugia police chief Arturo de Felice said he would be deported to Italy as soon as possible, insisting: "It's a matter of days, only days." Italian prime minister Romano Prodi thanked the German police for their help, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
november 20th 2007 Sky news 11.20 pm
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