Detectives seize computers and phones in bid to find culprits

London: Detectives are trawling through hundreds of e-mails and mobile phone records in an "extensive" inquiry into the alleged poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

They have seized computers and phones from his home in north London in an effort to trace the people he was in contact with when he fell ill. Inquiries are based on an afternoon meeting he held with two Russian men in a central London hotel.

The 41-year-old former KGB colonel had a "cup of tea" with another former agent and an unknown man.

The investigation is being conducted by Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism unit, which took over yesterday in a sign of how seriously the police and Government are taking the case.

Litvinenko is being guarded by up to six police officers at University College Hospital, where he remains in intensive care after allegedly being given the deadly toxin thallium.