SCOTLAND Yard is examining new claims that TV presenter Jill Dando was killed by a Serbian hitman.

Detectives are to interview witnesses who say they heard a man confess during a drinking session in a Belgrade bar. The man - a West Midlands petty criminal of Serbian descent - was applauded for his boast about her killing at the bar in September 2001, more than two years after the murder.

Crimewatch presenter Miss Dando, 37, was shot dead as she walked from her car to the front door of her home in Gowan Avenue, Fulham in April 1999. She was shot in the head with a single bullet.

The Serbian man is said to have taken a theatrical bow in front of drinkers after her boasted of the shooting. He also claimed the killing was in retaliation for a Serbian TV singer who was killed in Nato bombings of Belgrade.

Barry George, a local misfit with a history of sex offences and stalking women, had been convicted of Miss Dando's murder in 2001. A key piece of evidence - gunshot residue which was found in the coat he had been wearing on the day - was later ruled inadmissible and George was acquitted at a re-trial last August.

Since then detectives have launched a major review of the Dando case.

This includes undertaking a full review of the forensic evidence using new scientific techniques which were unavailable at the time of the original inquiry. Items, including the clothes worn by Miss Dando and those recovered from Mr George, are being minutely examined for possible new evidence.

A £50,000 reward from the Crimestoppers charity still exists for information that leads to the conviction of Miss Dando's killer.

A theory that the TV presenter was assassinated by a Serb hitman in revenge for the bombing of Belgrade by Nato in 1999 had been considered by the original team of detectives but dismissed because of lack of evidence.

As a result of a call to Crimestoppers, Avon and Somerset police went to Leyhill prison in Gloucestershire to interview Christopher Barrett-Jolley, a former cargo aircraft captain jailed for smuggling £22million worth of cocaine into Britain in 2002.

Barrett-Jolley, 61, who is said to have been one of the witnesses to the Belgrade confession, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was caught with 600lb of the drug on a flight from Jamaica to Southend. At the time he claimed he had been working for the CIA "airline" Air America.

Reports say that two other witnesses have confirmed the pilot's account of the confession in the Portobello bar.

Police sources say that detectives reviewing the case today have received dozens of calls and emails from people claiming to have new information.

Many of these are from clairvoyants or others "who have been reading the tea leaves", they said.

One detective said: "We have to follow up everything just to make sure. The latest information is being looked at but it is not a top priority."

Commander Simon Foy, the head of the Met's homicide squad, is in charge of the review of the murder.

He issued a statement saying: "Part of the review of the Dando inquiry has been to look at all new information that has come forward after the trial and to action and research that as best we can."

Some experts have claimed that Miss Dando was shot in an "execution-style" killing which bears the hallmarks of a professional hit.

Others have described it as "opportunistic" and amateur saying the killer made no attempt to disguise his identity, he walked away from the scene and used a home-made bullet that could only have worked if the gun had been pressed close to the victim's head.