Litvinenko contact polonium trail started mid-Oct

BERLIN, Dec 13 (Reuters) A Russian associate of poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko who is being investigated in the case has said he must have picked up traces of polonium from the murdered man when he met him in London in mid-October.

That is well before Litvinenko fell ill, on November. 1.

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

Kovtun 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.

''The only explanation for the traces of polonium I can give is that I brought them with me from London when I met Alexander Litvinenko there on October. 16, 17 and 18,'' Kovtun was quoted as saying to Germany's Spiegel TV in a short interview yesterday.

Kovtun, who says Litvinenko was the middleman in a business deal, is in a Moscow hospital although it is unclear what exactly is wrong with him.

''I am getting better day by day ... I hope to be out of hospital by the end of the week,'' he told Spiegel TV.

REUTERS DKS PM0427