the Prime Minister said the two governments had to end the "tit-for-tat culture" and work together despite festering tensions over the dissident's murder five years ago.
Mr Cameron is the first UK leader to visit Moscow since Tony Blair in 2005.
Relations nosedived following that trip when Mr Litvinenko was poisoned in London, and Russia refused to extradite the prime suspect, ex-KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi.
In a speech at Moscow State University this morning, Mr Cameron directly referred to the case and admitted there were "difficult issues that hamper mutual trust and co-operation".
"We still disagree with you over the Litvinenko case," he said.
"Our approach is simple and principled - when a crime is committed, that is a matter for the courts.
"It is their job to examine the evidence impartially and to determine innocence or guilt."
Mr Cameron said victims and their families had a "right to justice".
"It is the job of governments to help courts to do their work and that will continue to be our approach," he went on.
"So we can't pretend these differences don't exist.
"We need to keep working for an honest and open dialogue to address them candidly.
"But, at the same time, we have a responsibility to recognise the many ways in which we do need each other, to end the old culture of tit for tat and find ways for us to work together to advance our mutual interests."
Mr Cameron said he wanted a "new approach based on co-operation".
"Right now we both face enormous challenges from providing for our ageing populations and securing sustainable economic growth to protecting our countries against a global terrorist threat.
"The countries that will be successful in the 21st century will not be those that hunker down, pull up the drawbridge and fail to overcome their differences with others."
The Prime Minister even risked some Russian, telling the students: "We are stronger together."
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Lugovoi challenged Mr Cameron to meet him and called Britain's continued interest in the murder of Litvinenko "pitiful".
"The way the British have handled this matter is incorrect, vulgar and pitiful," he said. "My message to David Cameron is: Stop politicising the situation, stop raising this question at a high level with Russian politicians, and move on."
Mr Cameron's one-day visit is focusing on strengthening business links and improving conditions for UK firms in the country.
BP chairman Bob Dudley is among 24 senior executives travelling with the premier, and some £215 million of deals are due to be sealed, creating 500 UK jobs.
However, there will also be significant efforts to build political bridges.
Alongside talks with President Dmitry Medvedev, Mr Cameron is set to meet Vladimir Putin - who could take over the Kremlin again in elections next year.
UK diplomats have made the extraordinary admission that no ministers or senior officials have held discussions with Mr Putin for four years.
Downing Street has insisted that Mr Cameron will raise the Litvinenko case during his meetings.
But Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that Britain needed to abandon its "ideological obsessions".
"More and more people, including politicians, understand that ideological obsessions must give way to pragmatism and the search for balance of interests, both internationally and in bilateral relations of states, in spite of the fact that governments might differ on certain matters," he wrote in an article for First magazine.
The Kremlin has already reiterated its position that Mr Lugovoi - now a politician - will not be extradited and could only face prosecution in a Russian court.
The leaders are also due to cover Syria, where they disagree over how to react to brutal repression by the regime, Iran's nuclear programme, and Libya in their discussions.
taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8756756/David-Cameron-in-Russia-Britain-will-not-give-up-on-bringing-Alexander-Litvinenko-killer-to-justice.html"It is their job to examine the evidence impartially and to determine innocence or guilt."
Mr Cameron said victims and their families had a "right to justice".
"It is the job of governments to help courts to do their work and that will continue to be our approach," he went on.
"So we can't pretend these differences don't exist.
"We need to keep working for an honest and open dialogue to address them candidly.
"But, at the same time, we have a responsibility to recognise the many ways in which we do need each other, to end the old culture of tit for tat and find ways for us to work together to advance our mutual interests."
Mr Cameron said he wanted a "new approach based on co-operation".
"Right now we both face enormous challenges from providing for our ageing populations and securing sustainable economic growth to protecting our countries against a global terrorist threat.
"The countries that will be successful in the 21st century will not be those that hunker down, pull up the drawbridge and fail to overcome their differences with others."
The Prime Minister even risked some Russian, telling the students: "We are stronger together."
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Lugovoi challenged Mr Cameron to meet him and called Britain's continued interest in the murder of Litvinenko "pitiful".
"The way the British have handled this matter is incorrect, vulgar and pitiful," he said. "My message to David Cameron is: Stop politicising the situation, stop raising this question at a high level with Russian politicians, and move on."
Mr Cameron's one-day visit is focusing on strengthening business links and improving conditions for UK firms in the country.
BP chairman Bob Dudley is among 24 senior executives travelling with the premier, and some £215 million of deals are due to be sealed, creating 500 UK jobs.
However, there will also be significant efforts to build political bridges.
Alongside talks with President Dmitry Medvedev, Mr Cameron is set to meet Vladimir Putin - who could take over the Kremlin again in elections next year.
UK diplomats have made the extraordinary admission that no ministers or senior officials have held discussions with Mr Putin for four years.
Downing Street has insisted that Mr Cameron will raise the Litvinenko case during his meetings.
But Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that Britain needed to abandon its "ideological obsessions".
"More and more people, including politicians, understand that ideological obsessions must give way to pragmatism and the search for balance of interests, both internationally and in bilateral relations of states, in spite of the fact that governments might differ on certain matters," he wrote in an article for First magazine.
The Kremlin has already reiterated its position that Mr Lugovoi - now a politician - will not be extradited and could only face prosecution in a Russian court.
The leaders are also due to cover Syria, where they disagree over how to react to brutal repression by the regime, Iran's nuclear programme, and Libya in their discussions.
The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, has turned the tables on David Cameron on his first visit to the country as prime minister, raising doubts about the UK's court system and the level of corruption in British business.
In the first bilateral on Russian soil since a diplomatic row damaged relations following the murder in London in 2006 of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, the pair trumpeted agreements reached on British-Russian business.
They made it clear that they were determined to build a better relationship while leaving unresolved major differences, instead focusing on the £215m of deals that had already been struck during Cameron's trip.
The one-day bout of intense diplomacy will later see Cameron afforded the first face-to-face contact for a British prime minister with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, since 2007.
The press conference between Cameron and Medvedev saw much banter between the two men, with the Russian president saying he thought Cameron could have been a "very good" KGB spy – a reference to an earlier anecdote Cameron had told about travelling to the country in 1985 as a teenager and apparently being courted by Russians. Cameron's joke suggested he had narrowly missed possible recruitment to the KGB.
Though Cameron and Medvedev said publicly they had agreed to disagree on what should become of the man Britain suspects of murdering Litvinenko – Andrei Lugovoi, whom Russia refuses to extradite – Medvedev went further in questions put to him during the press conference.
"You have to learn to respect our legal framework," he said.
"I would like to remind you of article 65 of the Russian constitution says a Russian citizen can't be extradited for legal proceedings. We should understand it and respect it.
"We have questions about how court decisions are come to in the UK but we are not raising these issues."
Cameron has been under pressure to raise concerns about human rights and the conditions for operating in Russia during his first official visit to the country.
Today he rejected suggestions he was "parking" issues of human rights in favour of a trip to win business. Referring to the Litvinenko case, he said: "This is not being parked. The two governments don't agree. We are not downplaying it in any way. We have our own position. But I don't think that means we should freeze the entire relationship – we need to build a relationship in our mutual interest.
"Both of us want to see progress. We are not parking the issue, just realising there is an arrangement that hasn't changed."
But he was pushed to explain how he could call for British business to invest in a country with unstable conditions.
On 31 August, BP's Moscow offices were raided by bailiffs just one day after they lost out in a bid for a major Russian oil exploration contract.
Earlier in the morning in a speech delivered to students at Moscow's state university, Cameron had carefully acknowledged how hard British businesses found it to operate in Russia.
Then he said: "I've talked to many British businesses. I have no doubt about their ambition to work in Russia… …but it's also clear that the concerns that continue to make them hold back are real.
"They need to know that they can go to a court confident that a contract will be enforced objectively… and that their assets and premises won't be unlawfully taken away from them. In the long run the rule of law is what delivers stability and security."
But later when asked at the press conference why more British businessmen should do business in Russia when corruption appears to be unchecked, Medvedev said: "It is very difficult to deal with most states on our planet because corruption is a central element that exists everywhere. The open secret to you is that corruption exists in the UK as well. It doesn't mean we are not prepared to deal with the UK too."
Cameron's broad aim is to "rebuild" the relationship and put an end to the "tit-for-tat" behaviour of the two countries.
He said: "I accept that Britain and Russia have had a difficult relationship for some time. And we should be candid about the areas where we still disagree. But I want to make the case for a new approach based on co-operation."
There were "sceptics" in both countries, he said, "who will doubt whether we can ever get beyond the competitive ideological instincts of our past", but he said he would take on those groups.
In his speech to Moscow state university he set out the British government's position on Litvinenko, for the first time on Russian soil. He said: "Our approach is simple and principled. When a crime is committed that is a matter for the courts. It is their job to examine the evidence impartially and to determine innocence or guilt. The accused has a right to a fair trial. The victim and their family have a right to justice. It is the job of governments to help courts to do their work and that will continue to be our approach."
Describing his first visit, Cameron said at the beginning of his speech: "I first came to Russia as a student on my gap year between school and university in 1985. I took the Trans-Siberian Railway from Nakhodka to Moscow and went on to the Black Sea coast. There two Russians - speaking perfect English - turned up on a beach mostly used by foreigners.
"They took me out to lunch and dinner and asked me about life in England and what I thought about politics. When I got back I told my tutor at University and he asked me whether it was an interview. If it was, it seems I didn't get the job! My fortunes have improved a bit since then. So have those of Russia."
by Allegra Stratton taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/12/russian-president-cameron-litvinenko-case
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