LONDON - An Italian security expert who met with a former KGB agent the day he fell ill with radiation poisoning was under British protection and being tested for contamination Tuesday, and officials ordered tests for eight people who exhibited possible symptoms.

Andrei Nekrasov, a friend of the late former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, poses for photographs after speaking in an interview with The Associated Press in London, Tuesday Nov. 28, 2006. Mario Scaramella, an Italian academic who met with the Litvinenko the day he fell ill with radiation poisoning was being tested for contamination and was under security protection in London on Tuesday as the unsolved death cast a shadow over British-Russian relations. [AP]

Mario Scaramella has said that he met the ex-spy turned Kremlin critic, Alexander Litvinenko, at a London sushi restaurant on Nov. 1, the day Litvinenko became sick. He died Nov. 23.

Scaramella said he showed Litvinenko e-mails from a confidential source identifying the possible killers of a Russian investigative journalist and listing other potential targets for assassination - including himself and Litvinenko.

In a deathbed statement, Litvinenko blamed the Kremlin for his poisoning, which has cast a shadow over British-Russian relations. Prime Minister Tony Blair said "there is no diplomatic or political barrier in the way" of a thorough investigation.

Blair said he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the case "at any time that is appropriate." Putin has strongly denied any Kremlin links to the poisoning.

Moscow is important to Britain as an energy supplier and member of the Group of 8 industrialized nations, but many are critical of human rights abuses and unexplained deaths, including last month's slaying of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Scaramella said Tuesday he was being protected by a security team and would be tested for traces of polonium-210, the rare radioactive element found in Litvinenko's body. The isotope is deadly in tiny amounts if ingested or inhaled.

The Italian, an academic who helped investigate KGB activity in Italy during the Cold War, declined to say whether he would be questioned by police.

London police say they are investigating the Litvinenko case as a "suspicious death" rather than murder, although they have devoted a large anti-terrorist force to the inquiry.

Since Litvinenko's death, more than 1,100 people have called a health hotline over concerns they may be at risk from polonium poisoning. Of those, eight exhibited symptoms that health officials thought should be examined as a precaution, the Health Protection Agency said. The tests should take about a week.

Russia's top nuclear official on Tuesday denied the polonium, usually manufactured in specialized nuclear facilities, could have been stolen from a nuclear facility in Russia.

"Allegations that someone stole it during production are absolutely unfounded," said Sergei Kiriyenko, director of the nuclear agency Rosatom. "The controls are very tough."

Kiriyenko said Russia exports 8 grams of polonium-210 monthly, all of it to the United States. He said there had been no exports to Britain in five years.

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