BEIJING, Nov. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- A former Russian spy who was poisoned three weeks ago has been moved into intensive care unit after his condition deteriorated as the toxin attacked his bone marrow, according to hospital doctors Monday.

    British press reported Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB and Federal Security Bureau agent, has been hospitalized after apparently being given the deadly poison thallium, a toxic metal found in rat poison, in University College Hospital in London since the beginning of the month.

    Litvinenko's friends, prominent Russian exiles said he was poisoned at the behest of the Kremlin; however, a senior Kremlin spokesman on Monday denied any link to the attack, and dismissed the accusation as "sheer nonsense."

    Litvinenko "remains in a serious condition but last night there was a slight deterioration in his condition and he was transferred to intensive care as a precautionary measure," the source from University College Hospital was quoted as saying.

    Doctors further said that thallium can cause damage to the nervous system and organ failure. It is highly unlikely it was gotten into his food by accident as such poison has been outlawed in Britain since the 1970s.

    Photographs released by the hospital shows his sandy hair has fallen out, and his skin is sallow from the toxin that has attacked his organs and his central nervous system.

    Litvinenko, who had been looking into the killing of a Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, felt ill after meeting a contact that offered him related information at a sushi bar in Piccadilly, west London, at the beginning of the month.

    British police Sunday confirmed they are investigating this suspected plot to kill the former Russian spy.

    Litvinenko joined the KGB, the spy agency of the Soviet Union, and rose to the rank of colonel in its successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB).

    He fled Russia and claimed asylum in Britain in November 2000, two years after publicly accusing his FSB superiors of ordering him to kill "a powerful Kremlin insider."

    He also has accused FSB agents of coordinating the 1999 apartment-house bombings that killed over 300 people in Russia and sparked the second war in Chechnya.

    In 1999 and 2000, Litvinenko spent nine months in jail awaiting trial on charges of abusing his office, but he was acquitted, and then fled.

    (Agencies)

    UK police probe plot to kill ex-Russian spy

    BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- British police Sunday confirmed they are investigating a suspected plot to kill a former Russian spy by poisoning him with the toxic metal thallium.

    British press reported exiled agent Alexander Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been hospitalized in University College Hospital in London since the begining of the month with symptoms of near-fatal poisoning. Full story>>