An inquiry into the radiation poisoning of a former Russian spy has opened with claims there may have been an earlier assassination bid in the most sensational tale of espionage since the Cold War.
Alexander Litvinenko was killed - apparently via a cup of green tea laced with hard-to-detect polonium-210 - in an upmarket London hotel in 2006.
The inquiry will look into claims of Russian state involvement and on Tuesday it heard chilling extracts from Litvinenko's interviews with police conducted at his hospital deathbed.
Russia has refused to extradited the two men identified by British police as the chief suspects - Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun - who drank tea with Litvinenko on November 1, 2006.
Counsel to the inquiry Robin Tam said traces of polonium found from a previous meeting between the three on October 16 in the offices of a London security firm may indicate a previous poisoning attempt.
Tam also revealed that a friend of Kovtun from Germany will testify that the Russian told him he had poison and needed a contact for a cook to kill Litvinenko.
Litvinenko, who was doing work for Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence service, died on November 23, 2006 - three weeks after the poisoning.
A deathbed statement in his name accused President Vladimir Putin directly, saying that "the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life".
The inquiry's chairman Robert Owen said at the start of Tuesday's hearing that closed-doors hearings would examine intelligence material on "the issue of Russian state responsibility".
The hearings are due to last two months and Owen said his report would be out by the end of the year.
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