Germany probes Litvinenko contact's polonium remarks

HAMBURG, Dec 13 (Reuters) German police vowed today to examine the validity of comments by a contact of poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko that he must have picked up traces of polonium from the murdered man when they met in mid-October.

''The validity of the statements is hard to judge,'' said Andreas Schoepflin, a spokesman for the Hamburg state criminal investigation office.

The comments by Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun would be verified in cooperation with British officials, he added.

The mid-October meeting in London was well before Litvinenko fell ill, on November 1.

A German prosecutor has said Kovtun, who also met Litvinenko on the day he fell ill, could be a possible suspect in the case.

Kovtun, who also met Litvinenko on the day he fell ill and who is now in hospital in Moscow, denies any part in Litvinenko's poisoning.

German prosecutors are investigating him on suspicion of illegally handling radioactive material after traces of polonium were found in properties he used in Hamburg, and British and Russian investigators have also interviewed him in Moscow.

Litvinenko died in London on November 23 after receiving a lethal dose of radioactive polonium-210. He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his killing, although the Kremlin has denied being involved.

The ensuing mystery has sparked a cross-border investigation stretching from London to Moscow and Hamburg and generated a string of conspiracy theories.

German officials cleared two people on Wednesday feared to have been contaminated with polonium 210.

Germany's Radiation Protection Agency said urine tests showed Kovtun's ex-wife and her current partner had not absorbed the substances. Test results for their children were not yet available.

''In both tests, there was no indication of assimilation of polonium in connection with the discovered contamination,'' the agency said in a joint statement with the Hamburg police, confirming a preliminary assessment.

Kovtun spent the night of Oct. 28 at his ex-wife's Hamburg apartment, German police have said.

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