London ? The wife of an ex-KGB agent fatally poisoned in Britain and the Italian security expert he met the day he fell ill both showed traces of the same radioactive substance found in the dead man’s body, friends and officials said Friday.

The inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko widened with the new positive test results, the evacuation of a hotel in southern England and the sweep of an Irish hospital that treated a Russian opposition leader for what his aides described as poisoning. In Italy, the government sought to reassure the public there was no danger.

The Italian, Mario Scaramella, was hospitalized in protective police custody after tests confirmed he had been exposed to polonium-210, the rare isotope found in Litvinenko’s body before he died Nov. 23. The Italian’s father, Amedeo Scaramella, said by telephone, “my son has been poisoned.” He said he was too distraught and hung up.

Scaramella was exposed to a much lower level of radiation than Litvinenko, doctors treating him at London’s University College Hospital said.

Litvinenko’s wife, Marina, was also “very slightly contaminated” by the radioactive substance found in her husband’s body, the former KGB agent’s friend, Alex Goldfarb, told The Associated Press. He said she did not need medical treatment.

Home Secretary John Reid confirmed that a member of Litvinenko’s family had tested positive for signs of polonium-210, but he did not name the person. Pat Troop, chief executive officer of Britain’s Health Protection Agency, said the relative faced a “very small” long-term health risk.

Litvinenko died Nov. 23 at a London hospital and pathologists, wearing protective suits and face-covering helmets to guard against radiation, began an autopsy Friday. Results were not expected for several days.

At the Nov. 1 meeting at a sushi restaurant with Litvinenko, Scaramella discussed an e-mail he received from a source naming the killers of Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist and Kremlin critic who was gunned down Oct. 7 in Moscow. The e-mail reportedly said Scaramella and Litvinenko were also on the hit list.

In a letter released Friday by human rights activists, a former Russian security officer – now jailed – said he had also warned Litvinenko about a government-sponsored death squad that intended to kill him and other Kremlin opponents.

Litvinenko, 43, a Kremlin critic who lived in Britain, died at a London hospital. In a deathbed statement, he blamed President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning – charges the Kremlin rejected as “sheer nonsense.”

“Back in 2002, I warned Alexander Litvinenko that they set up a special team to kill him,” the former security services officer, Mikhail Trepashkin, wrote in the letter dated Nov. 23 – the day of Litvinenko’s death.