Jim Murphy, a Foreign Office minister, yesterday ruled out any possibility of accepting a trial in a third country of the Russian wanted for murdering the former spy Alexander Litvinenko. Trial in a third country had been suggested by Boris Berezovsky, the Russian dissident in London, as a way of breaking the stand-off between Mr Putin and Gordon Brown over Russia's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: "We want Mr Lugovoy tried in a UK court. That means on British soil and British soil means in the UK."