Detectives question key Litvinenko witness-report

MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) British and Russian investigators have begun questioning Andrei Lugovoy, a key witness in the case of murdered Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, local media reported today.

''At this moment a team of investigators from the prosecutor-general's office, in the presence of specialists from Scotland Yard, is questioning Lugovoy,'' RIA news agency quoted a source close to the case as saying.

A spokeswoman for the prosecutor-general's office said she could not immediately confirm the report.

Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoy met Litvinenko in a London hotel on November 1, the day the former spy and Kremlin critic fell ill. Litvinenko later died from a lethal dose of polonium 210, a radioactive substance.

Lugovoy is himself undergoing tests for radioactive contamination in a Moscow hospital.

REUTERS AB KN1940