Andrei Lugovoi, named by Britain as a suspect in the killing of the former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko in London, today claimed the UK’s special services tried to recruit him.

At a press conference in Moscow, which he organised, Mr Lugovoi repeated his denials of involvement in Litvinenko’s death.

British special services “asked me to collect compromising information on [the Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin”, he said, according to a translation by the Russia Today television channel.

“Litvinenko was not my enemy,” Mr Lugovoi, a former KGB bodyguard who is now a businessman, added. “I will fight to clear my name.”

Earlier this week, the British ambassador to Moscow delivered a request for his extradition. The Crown Prosecution Service last week said there was enough evidence to charge him with Litvinenko’s murder.

Litvinenko, a vehement critic of Mr Putin, died on November 23 last year. He had been poisoned with the radioactive isotope polonium-210.

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