KGB 'tried to recruit' Cameron

2006-05-28 12:00

London - The leader of Britain's main opposition Conservative Party, David Cameron, believes secret service agents from the former Soviet Union may have tried to recruit him before he started university.

In an interview with the BBC, to be broadcast later Sunday, the 39-year-old said suspected KGB operatives "interrogated" him as he travelled with a friend on the Black Sea coast in 1985 in his gap year between school and university.

Two Russians speaking "perfect English" turned up on a beach used mainly by foreigners, took them out to dinner and questioned them "in a friendly way" about life in England and politics, he told the Desert Island Discs programme.

"We were obviously very careful and guarded in what we said but later when I got to university my politics tutor said that was definitely an attempt," he recalled.

Cameron - currently riding high in the opinion polls at the expense of Prime Minister Tony Blair's scandal-dogged Labour Party - said the incident raised eyebrows when he was being vetted for a government post in the 1990s.

The Tory leader, seen as a moderniser who is trying to move the traditionally right-wing party to the centre ground now occupied by Labour, gave little away politically on the show.

But the father of three spoke candidly about his first child Ivan, who has a rare condition that combines epilepsy and cerebral palsy that has left him needing round-the-clock care.

The long-running radio programme gives imaginary castaways a choice of eight records, a luxury item and a book.

Cameron's musical choices included songs by Bob Dylan, REM, The Smiths, Radiohead and The Killers as well as saucy 1971 novelty song "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)", by British comedian Benny Hill.

- SAPA