UK detectives end spy probe in Moscow-police source

MOSCOW, Dec 18 (Reuters) British detectives probing the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko have wound up their investigation in Moscow and are due to leave for home tomorrow, a British police source said today.

No details of what the Scotland Yard investigators had discovered were available.

Earlier, Russian agency Interfax, quoting what is said was an informed source, reported that the investigators had interviewed six people including Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoy, who met Litvinenko in London on November 1, the day he fell ill with radiation poisoning.

Litvinenko died on November. 23 from a lethal dose of polonium 210. On his deathbed, he accused Putin of being behind his death but the Kremlin has denied the allegation as nonsense.

Russian agencies said earlier that Kovtun had been questioned again today. The Prosecutor-General's office refused to comment on the reports.

Last week German police uncovered traces of polonium in properties Kovtun used in Hamburg.

Kovtun has said he must have picked up traces of polonium from the murdered man when they met mid-October. That meeting in London was well before Litvinenko fell ill.

Kovtun denies any link to the murder.

REUTERS AB BST0028