''No radiation threat to passengers on Moscow-London flights''

Moscow, Dec 8 (UNI) Russia's Chief Doctor Gennady Onishchenko today said the passengers travelling on Moscow-London and London-Moscow flights did not face any threat of radiation.

Mr Onishchenko told Interfax news agency that two special purpose centres had been set up in Moscow, where Russians who were on-board the flights or who were related to the tragedy in some other way could have themselves tested for radiation to ease their concerns.

Mr Onishchenko, however, pointed out, ''In our opinion, it is unnecessary.'' Traces of radiation had been found on two British Airways airliners, and at a dozen sites in London and at the British Embassy in Moscow as part of a probe into the murder of ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died of a fatal dose of polonium-210 in London on November 23.

Mr Onishchenko said the airliners examined by his agency, the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare, were not contaminated.

He said checks were continuing on the planes, with about 13 planes being examined each day.

Mr Onishchenko further added that British authorities had invited Russian experts to visit London to discuss the possible radioactive contamination of aircraft, a proposal that was under consideration.

''We need information on contaminated locations in the UK and British airliners,'' he said.

A team of Scotland Yard is already conducting investigation in Moscow in the Litvinenko case.

One of Litvinenko's contacts, businessman Dmitry Kovtun is in hospital in Russia being treated for radiation poisoning.

Andrei Lugovoi, another key witness Russian businessman and former FSB officer, who met, along with Kovtun, with Litvinenko in London before he fell ill, is also undergoing medical tests.

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