Music producer Phil Spector was suffering withdrawal symptoms from prescription drugs when he told police he had shot and killed a woman at his mansion in 2003, his defence attorneys argue in court papers.

His lawyers are trying to get a judge to throw out his incriminating statements. They say that police ignored his requests for his medication after they took him into custody and that he was experiencing symptoms of withdrawal that "could include" hallucinations, memory loss, serious fatigue and slurring. The medicines were for treating depression, seizures, stomach acid, migraines and pain, according to lawyers.

Spector, 64, faces life in prison if convicted of killing actor Lana Clarkson. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Clarkson starred in Roger Corman's film classic Barbarian Queen. She was working as a hostess at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip and went home from there with Spector the night she died.

According to transcripts of a police interrogation, Spector initially apologised for accidentally shooting Clarkson but later said she had committed suicide.

The superior court's Judge Larry P Fidler ruled in May that he would allow testimony from four women who said Spector had threatened them with guns. The trial begins in January.