Litvinenko contact mystery

Dmitry Kovtun, a contact of dead Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, is in critical condition in hospital from radiation poisoning, Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying yesterday.

"Doctors have classified Mr Kovtun's condition as critical," Interfax quoted its source as saying. Mr Kovtun met Mr Litvinenko in London on November 1, the day the former spy fell ill.

Interfax also reported that Mr Kovtun fell into a coma after British and Russian investigators working on the Litvinenko case had finished questioning him in a Moscow hospital. However, it gave no source for the information on a coma.

A spokesman for Russia's Prosecutor-General's office said he had no information about Kovtun's health but some time late a lawyer denied the reports and said that Dmitry Kovtun was in satisfactory health and media reports he was in critical condition were wrong.

"I just ,15 minutes ago, spoke to his (Mr Kovtun's) representative, who had spoken directly to him and he denied that information," said Andrei Romashov, a lawyer for Andrei Lugovoy, another witness in the Litvinenko case.

"His health right at this minute is no different from the state of his health when he was questioned by Russian and British investigators," Mr Romashov said.