MOSCOW, May 31: The chief suspect in the murder of Russian ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko on Thursday accused the British secret service of being behind the killing and said Litvinenko himself had been spying for MI6.

Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent whom Britain has charged with the London murder, spun a tale of intrigue and espionage during a media conference in Moscow that only deepened the mysteries surrounding the most lurid spy tale since the Cold War.

The radiation poisoning of Litvinenko last November “couldn't have taken place outside the control of Great Britain's special services,” he said at the conference.

Asked whether there was evidence of their direct involvement in the murder, Lugovoi said: “There is”. Though he would give no details, the charge was likely to send already chilly relations between Moscow and London to a new low.—AFP