Russia says no ban on visas for UK officials

MOSCOW, July 30 (Reuters) Russia is issuing visas to British officials despite earlier threatening to halt them as part of a diplomatic row with Britain, the Russian Foreign Ministry said today.

Moscow and London have each expelled four diplomats and warned of other measures in a tit-for-tat row linked to Russia's refusal to extradite the man Britain suspects of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who had become a British citizen.

On July 19, Russia's Foreign Ministry said it would not consider visa applications from British officials until Britain explained its pledge to tighten the rules for issuing entry permits to Russian government representatives.

''A few days later ... the explanations we requested arrived and the question was closed,'' Russian Foreign Ministry chief spokesman Mikhail Kamynin told Reuters.

Asked about a ban on issuing visas to British officials, he replied: ''There is, and there was, none.'' In the most high-level visit by a British official since the diplomatic expulsions, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks was to visit Russia this week to review progress on programmes to improve nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation.

Russia's diplomatic relations with Britain hit a post-Cold war low this month after Moscow refused to extradite ex-KGB officer Andrei Lugovoy.

Britain has named him as chief suspect in the murder last year of Litvinenko, a Kremlin critic who died from a huge dose of the radioactive isotope polonium-210.

After he died in a London hospital, Litvinenko's associates published what they said was his deathbed statement accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder. The Kremlin has dismissed the accusation.

REUTERS JTHT2152