Suspect won't cooperate over Litvinenko

Britain's main suspect in the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko said today he would no longer cooperate with an inquest into the death, accusing the government of concealing evidence to hide the truth.

The former KGB agent, who had been granted British citizenship, died in November 2006 after someone slipped polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope, into his cup of tea at a London hotel.

Andrei Lugovoy, a former security agent who is now a member of Russia's parliament, said a request by Britain's Foreign Ministry to keep some information about the death secret for national security reasons was turning the inquest into a farce.

"I have come to the conclusion that the British authorities will not give me a chance to prove my innocence. I will be unable to get justice in Britain," Lugovoy told a news conference in Moscow.

The two countries' foreign and defence ministers are due to meet in London on Wednesday in the latest effort to improve relations that frayed over his death.

Russia has denied involvement in the death of Litvinenko, who put his name to a deathbed statement accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his death to silence him. Lugovoy has also denied any involvement.

Russia has refused to extradite Lugovoy and he has avoided Britain, but he appointed lawyers to represent him in the coroner's inquiry, for which several preliminary hearings have been held since August.

Lugovoy, 46, told the news conference that he had previously welcomed the inquiry as a chance to "defend my good name", get access to British case materials and present his own evidence.

"How can I prove my innocence? How can you play with an open hand when your opponent, represented by the Foreign Ministry of Britain, is hiding his cards?" he said. "It's not hard to guess who ends up the loser."

Under British law, inquests conducted by coroners are held when a person dies unexpectedly to determine the cause of death and may, depending on the findings, lead to further legal proceedings.

At a hearing in December, a lawyer acting on behalf of the inquest said the British government possessed information which established "a prima facie case" that the Russian state was behind Litvinenko's killing.

He was poisoned a month after investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was fatally shot in Moscow, another death that Kremlin critics said underscored the dangers of challenging the Russian government since Putin came to power in 2000.

Brandishing a thick, bound sheaf of paper he said was a London police report on the death, Lugovoy called it "a collection of wild conjectures based on nothing" and "the politicised fantasies of London detectives".

Litvinenko's widow, Marina, has also criticised the British government's secrecy request.

At a hearing last month, her lawyers alleged Britain was trying to keep secret details of his work for its MI6 intelligence service, and material they said showed Russia was behind his death, for the sake of trade deals.

The British coroner conducting the inquest ruled last month that he would hold private hearings to consider the government's request, but would only allow material to be kept secret where that served the public interest better than disclosure. The next public pre-inquest hearing is to be held on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Hague and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond are due to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu at the first session of what Moscow calls a "strategic dialogue".

Asked whether Hague and Lavrov would discuss Litvinenko, a British Foreign Office spokesman said a detailed agenda was not agreed in advance but added: "Both sides discuss issues where we don't agree on things. We regularly raise the Litvinenko issue at the very highest levels with Russian authorities."

The Foreign Office declined to comment on Lugovoy's decision. A lawyer for Marina Litvinenko, Elena Tsirlina, said she would not comment either.