Another Litvinenko witness hit by radiation-Ifax

MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) Andrei Lugovoy, a contact of poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, is suffering from radiation poisoning, Interfax news agency, said today, quoting medical sources.

''Disruption in the functioning of some organs affected by radiation nuclides has been found,'' the agency quoted a source as saying. It said it had more than one source for the information, which came from Lugovoy's medical notes.

Businessmen Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun were among the last who saw Litvinenko in London on November 1, the day he fell ill. Litvinenko died on November 23 poisoned by the highly radioactive substance polonium 210.

Interfax earlier quoted medical sources as saying that Kovtun, who is being treated in the same Moscow hospital as Lugovoy, was suffering from acute radiation poisoning and was in serious condition.

''Lugovoy's condition is considerably better than that of Kovtun, but he also has symptoms of contamination,'' the sources told Interfax.

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