"We very strongly believe the Litvinenko case to have had some state involvement, there are very strong indications that it was a state action," the senior security official told the BBC.
Marina Litvinenko, the widow of the murdered agent, has been pressing for official recognition that the use of radioactive polonium 210 must have been state-sanctioned.
To date the Government has remained silent on the responsibility for the killing merely requesting the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB bodyguard who is the main suspect in the case.
Referring to a later attempt to assassinate the businessman Boris Berezovsky, who employed Litvinenko, the security source said the "continued willingness" of the domestic security branch the FSB to "consider operations against people in the West" was causing major diplomatic problems.
His comments came as the Prime Minister held a "frank" meeting with the new Russian president, Dimitry Medvedev.
During a private meeting at the G8 summit in Japan, the Prime Minister is understood to have raised the assassination of Litvinenko in London, problems faced by oil company BP operating in Russia, and the treatment of the British Council – which has been forced to close several Russian offices.
It appeared that Britain had walked away from the talks empty-handed amid signs that the Russians may have been annoyed by Mr Brown's approach.
Mr Brown's spokesman insisted that the meeting was "constructive and worthwhile" although neither side said that the relationship had fully recovered.
A spokesman for Mr Brown said: "Clearly we are not going to solve all the problems in one meeting. But it is important we have a constructive relationship."
Sergey Prikhodko, an aide to the Russian President, said: "President Medvedev and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown had frank discussions and did not avoid any 'sharp issues'.
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