Businessman says he, 2 others, met Russian ex-spy

MOSCOW, Nov 24 (Reuters) A Russian former intelligence officer was quoted in a newspaper today as saying he and two other men met ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in a London hotel on November 1, the day before Litvinenko complained of feeling unwell.

Litvinenko, 43, a former spy and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died late yesterday in a London hospital from poisoning three weeks ago by an unknown substance.

His friends say he was the victim of a Kremlin-orchestrated assassination plot. The Kremlin says these reports are nonsense.

Businessman Andrei Lugovoy, a former officer in the FSB state security service, told Kommersant daily newspaper that he had known Litvinenko since 1996 and had been in touch with him in London several times over business affairs.

''There was nothing personal in our contacts -- only business,'' Lugovoy was quoted as saying.

Lugovoy said he went to London to see a football match between Moscow's CSKA and London's Arsenal and on November 1 he met Litvinenko in the bar of a London hotel.

The newspaper said they were accompanied by Lugovoy's business partner, Dmitry Kovtun, and were later joined by a third person, Vyacheslav Sokolenko, another partner and friend of Lugovoy's.

Lugovoy gave no details of their meeting, but said they arranged to meet again the following day. However, Litvinenko called the next day to say he felt unwell and called the meeting off.

Kommersant quoted Lugovoy as saying he had since met a Moscow-Based British diplomat and passed on details of the November 1 meeting. ''I said ... that I am ready to answer all questions which the police see fit to ask,'' he said.

REUTERS AB BS1401