Litvinenko police to question witness-associate

MOSCOW, Dec 6 (Reuters) British police in Moscow to investigate the Litvinenko poisoning case will today attend the questioning of key witness Andrei Lugovoy, one of his associates said.

Lugovoy met Kremlin critic and Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London on November 1, the day Litvinenko fell ill. He subsequently died from a lethal dose of radioactive substance polonium 210.

''I think the meeting should be today. It was planned,'' Lugovoy associate Vyacheslav Sokolenko told Reuters by telephone.

Sokolenko accompanied Lugovoy on the trip to London at the start of November, though he says he was not present when the meeting with Litvinenko took place.

Reuters LL GC1754