TRACES of the radioactive poison which killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko have been discovered at a Mayfair seafood restaurant.

The Health Protection Agency today revealed that the Pescatori restaurant, on Dover Street, in central London, had some evidence of polonium-210 contamination.

It is not known if Mr Litvinenko, who claimed on his deathbed that he had been poisoned by Russian president Vladimir Putin, visited the restaurant.

The Press Association reported the restaurant had been visited by three Russian men who met Mr Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair on the day he fell ill.

"As a result of a recent request from the Metropolitan Police, the Health Protection Agency has carried out monitoring of Pescatori Restaurant in Dover Street, Mayfair, which has been linked to the Litvinenko police investigation," a HPA statement said.

The HPA said it did not anticipate "any significant health risk" to staff or customers of the restaurant.

"On the basis of experience of other sites which were contaminated and investigated, we do not anticipate any significant health risk to staff or customers of the restaurant," the statement added.

"Based on our findings so far we consider there is no significant risk to public health and we are therefore not advising people to seek further advice from NHS Direct or other organisations."

"Remediation measures" had been carried out and the restaurant is now open for business.

As a precaution, the staff from the family-owned restaurant have been offered the opportunity to have their urine tested.

Polonium-210 is found in the environment and at low concentrations in people and poses a risk only if inhaled, swallowed or ingested through an open wound.

Earlier this week, a member of staff at the Best Western Premier Shaftesbury Hotel in Piccadilly and a guest who visited the Pine Bar of London's Millenium Hotel in Grosvenor Square on the day of the alleged poisoning became the latest to test positive to contamination.

In the two months since Mr Litvinenko died at University College Hospital, 12 people have tested positive to low levels of the radioactive isotope.

Last month, the HPA said it had found low levels of radiation in workers at the Millennium Hotel and members of staff at the Sheraton Hotel in Park Lane.

Some 571 urine samples tested by the HPA have found nothing of concern.