Brits Probe Ex-Spy's Radioactive Death

Walter Litvinenko, the father of the dead former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, speaks during a media conference, flanked by family friends Alex Goldfarb, left, and Andrei Nekraskov, right, outside University College Hospital in London, Friday Nov. 24, 2006. The former Russian spy who died in an apparent poisoning signed a statement on his deathbed blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death, friends said Friday. The statement, read to reporters outside the hospital where Alexander Litvinenko died late Thursday, accused the Russian leader of having "no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value." (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) (Matt Dunham - AP)

LONDON -- Scotland Yard detectives on Saturday traced the final steps of a former KGB spy turned Kremlin critic after officials determined he was poisoned by a rare radioactive substance.

A cabinet council that deals with sensitive diplomatic incidents met for a third day to discuss Alexander Litvinenko's death. A meeting Friday was chaired by Britain's top law enforcement official, Home Secretary John Reid.

Litvinenko died late Thursday at a London hospital after days in intensive care as doctors puzzled over what was destroying his immune system and causing his organs to fail.

Police said they were not yet treating the case as a murder, rather as an "unexplained death."

Britain's Health Protection Agency said Friday that the radioactive element polonium-210 had been found in his urine, and the police said traces of radiation were found at Litvinenko's home and a ritzy hotel bar and sushi restaurant he visited on Nov. 1, the day he became ill.

Detectives were interviewing the hotel and restaurant staff, a Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said Saturday.

The Health Protection Agency also asked anyone who had visited the sushi bar or hotel lounge to contact Britain's health service, although the agency stressed that the risk to the public from the radioactive material found at the bar and hotel is low.

In a statement written before he died, Litvinenko called Russian President Vladimir Putin "barbaric and ruthless" and blamed him personally for the poisoning.

Putin responded by accusing his opponents of "political provocation," while calling Litvinenko's death a tragedy.

Russian Ambassador Yury Fedotov was summoned to London's Foreign Office Friday as British diplomats asked Moscow for its assistance investigating the case, government officials said. Putin has pledged to cooperate.

Litvinenko, 43, had told police he believed he had been poisoned on Nov. 1 while investigating the October slaying of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another of Putin's critic.

Litvinenko worked for the KGB and its successor, the FSB. In 1998, he publicly accused his superiors of ordering him to kill tycoon Boris Berezovsky and spent nine months in jail from 1999 on charges of abuse of office. He was later acquitted and in 2000 sought asylum in Britain.