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Russian KGB officer charged with Litvinenko Murder

A Russian former KGB officer should be charged with the murder by poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, the UK's director of public prosecutions has recommended.

Sir Ken Macdonald said Andrei Lugovoi should be tried for the "grave crime".

Mr Litvinenko, 43, an ex-FSB agent and a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in London last November.

Mr Lugovoi denied any involvement and said the charges against him were "politically motivated"; the Kremlin said he would not be extradited.

'Well-founded distrust'

"I consider that this decision to be political, I did not kill Litvinenko, I have no relation to his death and I can only express well-founded distrust for the so-called basis of proof collected by British judicial officials," agencies quoted Mr Lugovoi as saying.

A spokesman for the Kremlin said Russia's constitution did not allow its nationals to be extradited.

Andrei Lugovoi has strongly denied involvement Profile of accused

The spokesman added it was waiting for the "British side to actually do something rather than make statements".

The Russian general prosecution service also said there was "no way" Mr Lugovoi could be extradited because of constitutional constraints.

But the service's spokesman added that a Russian citizen who had committed a crime in another country "should be prosecuted in Russia with evidence provided by the foreign state".

Earlier UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said she had told the Russian ambassador that she expected "full co-operation" with regards extraditing Mr Lugovoi.

The decision to prosecute was arrived at by the Crown Prosecution Service after consultation with Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, who advises the government on legal issues.

'Public interest'

Mr Litvinenko, who was granted political asylum in the UK in 2000 after leaving Russia and went on to take British citizenship, died at University College Hospital on 23 November.

He had been exposed to the radioactive isotope polonium-210.

I have instructed CPS lawyers to take immediate steps to seek the early extradition of Andrei Lugovoi from Russia Sir Ken Macdonald CPS statement on Litvinenko

Sir Ken told a news conference: "I have today concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoi with the murder of Mr Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning.

"I have further concluded that a prosecution of this case would clearly be in the public interest.

"In those circumstances, I have instructed CPS lawyers to take immediate steps to seek the early extradition of Andrei Lugovoi from Russia to the United Kingdom, so that he may be charged with murder - and be brought swiftly before a court in London to be prosecuted for this extraordinarily grave crime."

International investigation

Mr Litvinenko's widow Marina said that she welcomed the decision on what was a "big day" for her.

She said: "I am now very anxious to see that justice is really done and that Mr Lugovoi is extradited and brought to trial in a UK court."

A period of tense relations between Britain and Russia is expected Paul Reynolds World affairs correspondent, BBC News website 'Stand-off' over spy case

She added that any court case should be held in Britain, and that she believed more than one person was responsible for her husband's death.

The counter-terrorism command of the Metropolitan Police has been conducting a detailed international investigation into Mr Litvinenko's death. The police inquiry, during which officers followed a trail of polonium radioactivity at a series of locations visited by Mr Litvinenko in London before he died, eventually took them to Moscow.

His friends, including London-based Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, have accused the Kremlin of ordering his assassination but the Russian government has rejected such claims.

Police passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service in January.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary had met with the Russian ambassador to "underline that they should comply with the extradition request".

He added the government has "left nobody in any doubt at all as to the seriousness with which we view this case".