Christopher Lee as Dracula

London, April 1 (Reuters): The inspiration for the vampire slayer in Bram Stoker?s Dracula spied for the British government for decades, according to previously secret documents.

Arriving in Britain after travels across central Asia, Hungary-born Arminius Vambery enthralled many ? including Stoker ? with stories of his adventures and particularly tales of blood-sucking fiends from Transylvania.

But documents kept secret for decades and finally released yesterday by Britain?s National Archives reveal another side to the Russian-hating anglophile.

Vambery, a scholar and linguist, for 20 years until his death in 1913 gave the British government information on Russian colonial ambitions, advised on British foreign policy in Central Asia and encouraged the improvement of Anglo-Turkish relations.

?His knowledge of Islam and the customs, ethnography and philology of the Ottoman and Persian empires facilitated his access to both the Sultan and the Shah, and earned him the respect of British statesmen and diplomats,? foreign office historian Keith Hamilton said.