London ? An ex-KGB agent poisoned in London described in interviews before his death how he was ordered to hire assassins to neutralize potential rivals and whistle-blowers who threatened the Kremlin, according to excerpts published and broadcast Saturday.

Alexander Litvinenko, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died Thursday of heart failure after falling gravely ill from what doctors said was poisoning by a rare radioactive substance.

His highly contaminated body was released to a coroner by police late Saturday, and Home Office pathologists were expected to begin an autopsy, but experts said investigators might never pinpoint the exact source of the radioactive polonium-210 found in the spy’s urine by toxicologists.

Deathbed accusations

In a dramatic deathbed statement, 43-year-old Litvinenko accused Putin – whom he called “barbaric and ruthless” – of ordering his poisoning. Putin has called the death a tragedy and denied involvement.

Litvinenko spoke to James Heartfield and Julia Svetlichnaja from the University of Westminster in three interviews that lasted about six hours in April and May. The Daily Telegraph published a syndicated version of the interviews Saturday.

Litvinenko was recruited into the Soviet-era KGB and also worked for its successor, the Federal Security Service, or FSB. After the fall of communism, he said his directive was to recruit powerful businessmen who could stimulate an economic boom, and to hire assassins.

“So if somebody was the victim of a crime – like his daughter was raped – you would offer to let them take revenge on the perpetrator,” Litvinenko was quoted as saying.

British detectives investigating his death launched an international hunt for witnesses Saturday and spooled through hours of security video for clues. They were examining closed-circuit television footage and interviewing hotel and restaurant staff, a police spokeswoman said.

In a sign the British government was taking the matter seriously, it convened a crisis committee with security officials for a third straight day. The meetings are attended by the nation’s top security, health and diplomatic officials on issues such as terrorism.

Putin’s government has pledged to cooperate with the investigation; the Kremlin had no immediate comment Saturday on the interviews.

‘Problem principle’

In the interviews, Litvinenko said that as a favor to a senior former colleague who was in debt to moneylenders from the Caucasus, he was told to arrest the creditors and execute them.

“Our department worked on the so-called problem principle – the government had a problem, and we had simply to deal with it,” he said.

He said he was ordered to kill Mikhail Trepashkin, another security officer who had spoken about the FSB’s activities. He said he was also told to kidnap a prominent Chechen businessman based in Moscow to trade for Russian intelligence officers taken hostage by Chechens.

In an interview taped with British television journalist John Coates late last year, parts of which were broadcast for the first time on Britain’s Sky television Saturday, Litvinenko said he raised concerns in 1997 with Putin – then head of the FSB.

Government opponents were “illegally killed – not court executed” in Russian streets or forests by the agency, Litvinenko said, speaking in English.

In 1998, Litvinenko publicly accused his superiors of ordering him to kill Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who was living in exile in London. He spent nine months in jail on charges of abuse of office, then was acquitted and moved to Britain, which granted him asylum in 2000.

The Cabinet Office said Litvinenko’s body was moved from University College Hospital to a mortuary Saturday after experts assessed how to safely conduct an autopsy.

Police said Saturday the case was still being treated as an “unexplained death” – not murder.