Russia's former Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, architect of the country's market reforms, has suffered a sudden, unexplained and violent illness on a visit to Ireland, The Financial Times reported.

He fell ill last week, a day after Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB spy, died in London from an apparent radiation poisoning.

Gaidar is now in a stable condition at an undisclosed Moscow hospital, undergoing tests.

In a telephone interview with the FT, Gaidar said the doctors had so far been unable to identify the cause of the violent vomiting and bleeding that he suffered during a conference in Ireland.

Anatoly Chubais, his former associate and the head of Russia's electricity monopoly, said he suspected Gaidar may have been poisoned.

Gaidar is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's softer critics and his daughter is a leader of an opposition movement. Gaidar, who heads an economic think-tank in Moscow, has close connections with the government and occasionally advises them on economic matters.

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