LONDON (AFP) -- Prime minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown should tone down the government's approach in its diplomatic row with Russia over the poisoning of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, Russia's ambassador to London said in an interview published on Wednesday.

Litvinenko was killed last November after ingesting the radioactive substance polonium-210. Prosecutors have filed a request for the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent, so that he can stand trial for Litvinenko's murder.

Russia has so far refused saying its constitution does not allow extradition, and Lugovoi has protested his innocence, claiming British intelligence were instead responsible. "Maybe at this stage the bilateral relations between our two countries needs fresh impetus, a new dynamic," Yuri Fedotov told the Financial Times, criticizing the government's "megaphone diplomacy." "This new dynamic to the relations could be achieved when the government is changed here and there will be a new team and ... a new page in our relations." Fedotov added that with Brown in charge, he hoped that relations "between our two countries will be taken in a more general way, with a more strategic approach." He also criticized what he characterized as London's decision to involve European Union countries in the Litvinenko affair: "I don't think it is right when bilateral issues which may be easily resolved through bilateral channels are becoming the issue for the EU at large." The foreign office said, however, the government's "position hasn't changed, and it isn't going to change." "It is a question of a British citizen (Litvinenko) killed in London and a public health risk to British citizens and visitors to the city." Despite the row, however, Fedotov said relations between Russia and Britain and the EU were well established in trade and economics: "For Russian companies to be listed on the London Stock Exchange has become a kind of compulsory quality stamp."