Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov slammed Britain Friday for knowingly "violating international law," as Russia ordered British Council offices across Russia to close.

Anglo-Russian relations have sunk to Cold War lows after Moscow refused to extradite an ex-KGB bodyguard suspected of murdering Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London, culminating in the tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats in May.

"The British side has deliberately deteriorated relations with Russia," said Lavrov, accusing Britain of ignoring international law in the activities of its embassy's cultural arm in Russia.

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown rejected the claims, saying that it was Russia that was breaking the law.

"I have talked to many (European) heads of government today who are angry at what is happening... This is completely unacceptable, unjustifiable behaviour.

The British Council does a great job culturally in every part of the world," he told journalists at a European Union summit in Brussels.

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband echoed those comments, saying that the EU's foreign ministers all perceived the Russian move as "illegal" and "in violation of the 1963 Vienna Declaration on cultural exchange."

"Cultural exchange between Britain and Russia is something we celebrate... I cannot conceive what benefit there is for the Russian government in closing down British Council offices. The people who lose are Russian citizens, and the Russian government, which is seen as clamping down on an independent cultural institution," he added.

Russia on Wednesday ordered the British Council, a government- funded organization promoting British culture abroad, to close its 15 regional offices across Russia, which it said were in breach of the 1963 Vienna Convention on consular activities.

The British government has denied the claim, and refused to comply.

"In the situation around the British Council, our British partners are trying to manipulate the international law on top of violating Russian legislation," Lavrov was quoted as saying by news agency Interfax on Friday.

The Council has been involved in a 13-year row over its legal status. It sees itself as the cultural arm of the British Embassy and is not registered as a non-governmental organization under new Russian laws.

With escalating tension between the two countries in recent months, human rights activist see little hope of resolving the council's legal status, which is based on a 1994 cooperation agreement with Russia.

Lavrov on Friday explicitly said Russia had suspended drafting a new agreement on the cultural centre's working "as retaliation for the expelling of several Russian diplomats from London."

The British Embassy meanwhile has rejected any connection between the British Council's activities and the Litvinenko case.

Spokespersons for the Kremlin refused to comment on the situation Friday. But the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi protested the British Council's activities, targeting British Ambassador Anthony Brenton with pickets in front of the embassy this month.

Lavrov personally named Brenton in Friday's statement, accusing him of "ignoring international law."