Agency in fresh denial over spy poisoning

Read more...

• KGB defector on the brink of death may have taken radioactive drug

University College Hospital in London said Mr Litvinenko's condition had deteriorated slightly from yesterday, while friends also said he looked worse.

Doctors have said his illness is unlikely to have been caused by thallium sulphate poisoning, but they have not ruled out radioactive material - including radioactive thallium - being to blame.

Friends of Mr Litvinenko claim he was poisoned in London earlier this month because of his fierce criticism of Vladimir Putin's administration.

However, Russia's foreign intelligence service today denied that it had played any role in the incident.

"Litvinenko is not the kind of person for whose sake we would spoil bilateral relations," Sergei Ivanov, a spokesman for the service, whose Russian abbreviation is SVR, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

"It is absolutely not in our interests to be engaged in such activity."

The SVR is one of the successor agencies to the Soviet KGB. Litvinenko worked both for the KGB and for another successor group, the Federal Security Service.

The Kremlin has also denied any involvement in the alleged poisoning.

After visiting Mr Litvinenko in hospital today, one of his closest friends, Alex Goldfarb, emerged to say that he looked worse.

"I did not speak to the doctors but today he looked worse than yesterday," he said. "He is very tired, he is not really communicating, he is aware and alert but the light is irritating him and he is much thinner and I would say yellow.

"So I would say that he is deteriorating." Mr Goldfarb was accompanied by Andrei Nekrasov, who made a film based on Mr Litvinenko's book, The FSB Blows Up Russia.

He said he had been "absolutely shocked" to see his friend screaming in pain.

"I saw him just a month ago when he was a healthy, cheerful man full of energy and a thirst for life, and (now) he looks like a ghost," Mr Nekrasov said. "It is very, very upsetting. I was close to tears."

The Italian academic who met Mr Litvinenko in a sushi bar on the day he was allegedly poisoned has revealed how they discussed documents he had received which included "alarming" facts that left both men fearing for their lives.

Mario Scaramella, a former consultant on the Italian government's Mitrokhin Commission, which investigated the KGB's activities in Italy, suggested that Mr Litvinenko could have been targeted for his own work for the commission.

The former security agent, a defector to Britain who has been granted asylum and citizenship, is thought to have been poisoned three weeks ago, on November 1.

He had been investigating the murder of dissident Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Dr Amit Nathwani, the consultant caring for Mr Litvinenko, said hospital staff were carrying out a series of tests and investigating "numerous" other potential causes of his illness which could explain his combination of symptoms.

He said he did not want to put a figure on Mr Litvinenko's survival chances, but added that he would stay in intensive care for as long as is necessary.

Last night, the hospital trust said: "Based on results we have received and Mr Litvinenko's clinical features, thallium sulphate poisoning is an unlikely cause of his current condition.

"We cannot rule out the possibility that Mr Litvinenko's condition was caused by a radioactive material - including radioactive thallium - although not all of his signs and symptoms are consistent with radiation toxicity."

Eminent toxicologist Professor John Henry previously said the damage to Mr Litvinenko's bone marrow and his blood cells suggested a large dose of "radioactive thallium" could be to blame for his condition.

Prof Henry has had access to Mr Litvinenko and offered advice on his treatment, although he has not been making the clinical decisions. Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism unit is heading the police investigation into the alleged poisoning.

A spokesman for the force said there was no update on the investigation today, but that inquiries were continuing.

Officers are focusing on two meetings Mr Litvinenko had on the day he was allegedly poisoned.

The first was at a London hotel - named today as the Millennium Hotel - where he had tea with two Russian men, one a former KGB officer.

The second was with Mr Scaramella at the Itsu sushi restaurant in Piccadilly. While there he reportedly helped himself at the restaurant's buffet and received soup from an attendant.

Mr Litvinenko was subsequently taken ill and later admitted to Barnet General Hospital. He was transferred to University College Hospital on Friday, around the same time as the police became involved.