Norway gunman stopped from talking to victims' families

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A judge on Monday prevented right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, the confessed killer of 77 people in a July rampage in Norway, from talking to victims' families at his first public court appearance.

Behring Breivik, 32, speaking calmly, tried to address the families at the Oslo district court where they were gathered along with journalists and members of the general public, before being quickly interrupted by the judge.

The court is under a gag order on reporting Behring Breivik's words for fear he would turn the hearing into a platform for his far-right ideology, although the court might lift the order once the hearing was over.

There was also a ban on publishing pictures or video of him.

Behring Breivik was dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and light blue tie and sporting a narrow blonde beard at the hearing aimed at determining whether he can be held in custody for another 12 weeks.

The previous custody extension hearings had all been held behind closed doors for fear the confessed killer, who has said he acted alone in the July 22 attacks, might communicate with possible accomplices.

As the investigation has progressed, police have meanwhile said the theory that Behring Breivik had helpers appeared increasingly unlikely.

They therefore accepted that the public be allowed to attend Monday's hearing, but had requested that Behring Breivik himself only appear via video link from the high security Ila prison near Oslo, where he is being held.

Norway's Supreme Court rejected that request on Friday, making it possible for the confessed killer to appear in person, as he wished.

Behring Breivik has admitted setting off a car bomb outside Norway's government offices in Oslo, killing eight people, before going on a shooting rampage on the nearby island of Utoeya where the ruling Labour Party's youth wing was hosting a summer camp.

Sixty-nine people, mostly teens, died in the shooting massacre.

In a manifesto he published on the Internet just before the attacks, Behring Breivik said he was on a 'crusade' against Islam and professed his hatred for Western-style democracy, saying it had spawned the multicultural society he loathed.

If a psychiatric examination finds he can be held criminally responsible for his acts, his trial should open in April 2012.