MOSCOW - The U.S. Embassy on Wednesday confirmed that two American women have been hospitalized in Moscow for possible thallium poisoning.

An embassy spokesman identified the women as Marina Kovalevsky and her daughter Yana, but gave no further details. He said they were hoping to return home soon, but it was not immediately clear when they might be able to do so.

The hospital where they have been treated since falling ill on Feb. 24 said Wednesday morning that they were in moderately serious condition. Moscow’s top public health doctor, Nikolai Filatov, was quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency as saying that thallium poisoning had been confirmed.

Russian news reports said both women are Soviet-born and emigrated to the United States in 1989, and that they have visited Russia repeatedly since then. The reports say they arrived in Moscow in mid-February to attend a wedding.

How they may have ingested the poison - a colorless, tasteless substance that can be fatal in doses of as little as one gram - was not clear.

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