German police confirm further polonium traces found

BERLIN, Dec 11 (Reuters) German police said tday they had preliminary confirmation that a car used by a Russian associate of murdered ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko was contaminated with the same substance used to poison him.

A spokeswoman for police in Hamburg said a BMW used to pick up Dmitry Kovtun at Hamburg airport on October 28 had traces of polonium-210. Kovtun was one of two Russians who met Litvinenko at a London hotel on November 1, the day he fell ill.

''The result is still preliminary,'' the spokeswoman said. ''We will have definitive results later this afternoon.'' Kovtun is being investigated on suspicion of illegally handling polonium-210, a highly radioactive material that is potentially lethal when ingested, Hamburg's Chief Prosecutor Martin Koehnke told a news conference yesterday.

Koehnke said there was reason to suspect that Kovtun may have been among those responsible for Litvinenko's poisoning.

Kovtun has developed symptoms of radiation poisoning, according to Russian prosecutors, but there are conflicting reports about his exact state of health. Hamburg police said on Monday an investigator from Britain's Scotland Yard had arrived to pursue the German angle in the investigation and was working out of the police headquarters.

German officials said on Sunday they found traces of polonium-210 on a sofa and in the bathroom of a flat belonging to Kovtun's ex-wife in the northern Germany city of Hamburg and in a house nearby, belonging to Kovtun's former mother-in-law.

Litvinenko died on November 23 after receiving a lethal dose of polonium-210. In a statement released after his death, he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing him.

The Kremlin has denied involvement in a case that has spawned conspiracy theories, revived memories of Cold War spying and strained relations between Russia and Britain.

REUTERS BDP KN1911