BEIJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The sudden disappearance of a number of key witnesses in the Alexander Litvinenko investigation will make it even harder for British detectives, whose inquiry has now spread across five countries, The Times reported Wednesday.

    Scotland Yard was struggling to gain access to vital witnesses with former associates of Litvinenko, a former Russian spy, claiming that they were too scared to come forward.

    Interpol on Tuesday joined the investigation into the poisoning of Litvinenko, saying that it hoped to exchange information coming from Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Russia.

    Litvinenko died of radioactive poisoning last month in London. Experts investigating his death have found radiation traces at a dozen locations and on two British Airways planes that flew the Moscow-London route.

    Litvinenko, who was a strong critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused the Kremlin of orchestrating his poisoning just before his death. Moscow has vehemently denied the charge.

    Russian officials have suggested that the poisoning may have been an attempt to discredit Moscow, The Times reported.

    The former agent had been arrested several times before fleeing to Britain with his wife and son in November 2000 and was granted asylum. He became a British citizen last month.

    (Agencies)

4 tested in Germany for polonium that kills Litvinenko

    BEIJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Four people were hospitalized in Hamburg Monday, on suspicion they had been contaminated by polonium, the same radioactive substance that killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, The New York Times reported.

    The four had contact in Germany with Russian businessman Dmitri Kovtun, who spent four days in Hamburg in late October before flying to London, where he and two other Russian men met at a hotel with Litvinenko on Nov. 1. Litvinenko fell ill later that day from radiation poisoning and died several weeks later.

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