A public-supported clinic in Udine on Wednesday confirmed that the structure is ready to help a woman in an irreversible coma end her life as soon as the latest legal hurdle is cleared.

Director Claudio Riccobon revealed that Eluana Englaro, a 38-year-old woman trapped in an permanent vegetative state for almost 17 years, had been due to arrive in Udine from a clinic in Lecco on Tuesday.

Riccobon said his clinic was ready to remove Eluana's feeding tube in accordance with a ruling by a Milan Appeals Court confirmed by Italy's supreme court in November.

But the transfer was halted at the last minute after Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi issued an official guideline stating that the suspension of treatment for patients in a vegetative state in public health institutions is ''illegal''.

''We have temporarily suspended the transfer until the lawyers of Eluana Englaro and her family prove that Minister Sacconi's intervention does not affect the validity of the court rulings,'' said Riccobon.

''We confirm our availability to accommodate Eluana. A team of 20-25 professionals from outside the clinic are on standby and will look after her on an unpaid voluntary basis,'' he said.

''We want to operate in total respect of the law and the rules. As soon as Minister Sacconi's measure proves invalid, Eluana will be transferred to Udine where she will receive the requested treatments for a dignified assistance (to the end of her life) in accordance with the decision of the court''.

The right-to-die ruling from the Cassation Court has split Italy, with Catholic politicians and the Vatican claiming it authorises euthanasia and libertarians hailing it as a victory for individual liberty.

Eluana's father, Beppino Englaro, has been fighting for over ten years to earn the right to end his daughter's life in respect of what he says were her wishes.

But the Lombardy region, where Eluana is cared for by nuns at Lecco's Beato Luigi Talamoni clinic, has refused to offer clinics or health workers to help the woman die.

Three Italian organisations representing 34 pro-life associations have meanwhile lodged an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights against the sentence.

POLEMICS OVER SACCONI INTERVENTION.

While Sacconi's guideline was hailed by Catholic politicians, critics claimed it was not lawful and urged the family's lawyers to go ahead with the transfer.

Citizens' rights bureau Codici said it was ''inadmissable'' for a minister to issue a guideline after law courts had made a definitive ruling.

The president emeritus of Italy's Constitutional Court, Antonio Baldassare, told newspaper Corriere della Sera that Sacconi's guideline ''is valid for everyone except Eluana'' because the Cassation Court had issued a specific ruling on her case.

Carlo Alberto Defanti, Eluana's neurologist who has looked after Englaro, described the intervention as ''devious''

''They have found the weak link in the whole chain, which is the clinic, making a concrete threat that could suggest funding would be withheld,'' he said.

Vittorio Angiolini, the Englaro family lawyer, said that while Sacconi's intervention was ''an intimidatory deterrent'', the family ''did not want to force anyone to take any risks'' in helping Eluana end her life.

Franca Alessio, Eluana's lawyer, said ''the only way forward'' was to ask the appeals court to issue an executive decree for the ruling.

''We are talking about a case that has completed its entire judicial journey and for which a ruling has been given in the name of the Italian people,'' she said.

''After what happened yesterday, I feel like saying that judicial authority doesn't exist anymore''.

Other observers suggested that finding a private clinic ready to treat Eluana or returning her to the family home to end her life would be alternative methods of bypassing Sacconi's guideline.

Eluana has been in a permanent vegetative state since a car crash at the age of 22.