A security expert’s positive test in London for a radioactive substance was not a public health threat in Italy, Italian officials said.

THE illness of the Russian former security agent Alexander Litvinenko is unlikely to have been caused by thallium sulphate poisoning, the hospital doctors treating him said last night.

An Italian security expert today confirmed he met with a former Russian spy in London before the outspoken critic of the Kremlin was taken seriously ill with what British police and doctors suspect is poisoning by a toxic metal.

Elections pitting Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative coalition against centre-left forces led by Romano Prodi were too close to call tonight after projections showed Berlusconi’s forces leading in the Senate but running neck-and-neck in the lower Chamber of Deputies.