Litvinenko Police 'will Fly Back to Russia'

Detectives from Scotland Yard are to return to Moscow to make further inquiries in their investigation into the death of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, Russia's chief prosecutor said yesterday.

Yuri Chaika said he had received a new application on Monday from British detectives requesting permission to fly back to Moscow. Russia will dispatch its own team of investigators to London, he said.

Scotland Yard would not confirm whether detectives will return to Russia. "Our position is that we're keeping an open mind," a spokeswoman said. "Going back was always an option."

The latest request to the Russian authorities suggests that Scotland Yard's last highly publicised visit to Moscow in December may have left many questions unanswered. Detectives made little secret of their frustration during their two-week visit. Russian officials seized control of a key part of the inquiry, and told the team that Russian suspects would not be extradited back to the UK.

The detectives met two witnesses - businessmen Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent - who met Litvinenko on November 1, the day he was fatally poisoned with a huge dose of radioactive polonium-210. But they were not allowed to ask them direct questions.

Yesterday Mr Chaika said his investigators were keen to quiz Boris Berezovsky - the millionaire arch-critic of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin - and Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen separatist leader, who are both London-based. He also said Russian investigators intended to question Leonid Nevzlin, former co-owner of the Russian firm Yukos, broken up by the Kremlin. Mr Nevzlin lives in Israel.