Germany tracks polonium trail

German police have uncovered a radioactive trail linked to what prosecutors believe could be a possible suspect in the murder of a former Russian spy in London last month. Police said yesterday a BMW used to pick up Dmitry Kovtun at Hamburg airport on October 28 had traces of polonium 210, the same radioactive substance used to poison Alexander Litvinenko.

Mr Kovtun, 41, was one of two Russians who met Mr Litvinenko at a London hotel on November 1, the day the ex-KGB agent and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin fell ill.

"Contamination was also found in a second car, a Chrysler" used by Mr Litvinenko, a police statement said.

The radioactive trail linked to Mr Kovtun goes further.

Mr Kovtun's ex-wife, her current partner and their two young children all tested positive for traces of polonium 210, the statement said. Mr Kovtun spent the night of October 28 at his ex-wife's Hamburg apartment, it said.

It was unclear if the contamination of the four people was internal or external, police said. They were brought to a special hospital ward for people with radiation sickness.

Mr Litvinenko died on November 23 from a lethal dose of polonium 210. In a statement released after his death, he accused Mr Putin of killing him.

Moscow has denied any involvement but Mr Litvinenko's slow, agonising death has sparked police investigations in London, Moscow and Hamburg, scorched Russia's reputation and revived memories of Cold War revenge tales.

Mr Kovtun is being investigated in Hamburg on suspicion of illegally handling polonium 210, a highly radioactive material that is potentially lethal when ingested, Hamburg's Chief Prosecutor Martin Koehnke told a news conference on Sunday.

Mr Koehnke said there was reason to suspect that Mr Kovtun, who was questioned by British investigators in Moscow last week, may have been among those responsible for Mr Litvinenko's death.

Mr Kovtun, who has denied any part in Mr Litvinenko's poisoning, has developed symptoms of radiation poisoning, according to Russian prosecutors, but there are conflicting reports about his exact state of health.

Hamburg police said yesterday an investigator from Britain's Scotland Yard had arrived to pursue the German angle in the investigation and was working out of the police headquarters.

Separately yesterday, Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported that Andrei Lugovoy, who was also at the November 1 meeting in London with Mr Litvinenko and Mr Kovtun, had been questioned by Russian and British detectives.

"I was giving testimony purely as a witness," Tass quoted Mr Lugovoy as saying yesterday. He said that Russian detectives conducted the questioning in the presence of British police colleagues. The session lasted more than three hours.