VLADIVOSTOK. Oct 24 (Interfax) - Russian controversial businessman Andrei Lugovoi says "one more provocation" stands behind the British authorities' new request to be allowed to send Scotland Yard officials to Moscow to investigate the Litvinenko case.

"Reports were circulated a few days ago claiming that the UK had again asked the Russian Prosecutor General's Office to allow [British experts] to come to Russia to investigate the Litvinenko case," Lugovoi told the press in Vladivostok.

The Prosecutor General's Office has made it clear that it wants to cooperate with the British authorities, but it would first like to receive replies to its inquiries sent ten months ago, he said.