Italian authorities have confirmed that the body of an Asian woman found in a suitcase on the Italian coast is not that of a Dublin-based Chinese woman who went missing during a Mediterranean cruise last month.

Two male nurses made the discovery of the woman’s body, while working on their boat in Rimini harbour on the Adriatic coast on Saturday.

The body is understood to be six or seven inches taller than that of Xiang Lei Li, who was reported missing following a 10-day cruise out of Civitavecchia, north of Rome.

The autopsy also revealed the woman died of starvation and that the body had not been in water for longer than 10 days. Ms Li went missing between February 10th and 20th, more than one month ago.

Her German husband, Daniel Belling, is currently under arrest in Rome’s Regina Coeli prison, on suspicion of having killed his wife during the cruise.

Mr Belling was arrested at Rome’s Ciampino airport last month, before he could board a plane to Dublin. It was the same the day as he had disembarked in Civitavecchia at the end of the cruise.