Royal palace among Norway suspect's other targets

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The royal palace and the headquarters of the governing Labour Party were on self-confessed Norwegian killer Anders Behring Breivik's list of targets, the tabloid Verdens Gang (VG) reported on Saturday.

"During his interrogation, he said that he had planned to attack other targets, but on July 22 it was only the seat of government in Oslo and Utoeya," the island where young Labour Party supporters were holding their summer camp, prosecutor Paal-Fredrick Hjort Kraby was quoted as telling the paper.

According to VG, the royal palace was a target because of its symbolic value, while Labour headquarters were targeted because of the party's role in creating the multi-cultural society so loathed by Behring Breivik.

"I would not like to comment on the number or nature of the targets he had in mind. They are obvious targets for a terrorist and the idea is to hit the government," Hjort Kraby said.

Norwegian police declined to comment on the report to AFP.

"After the attacks security was stepped up on central buildings. We do not give out details of what measures are in pleace but the security of institutions is assured," police spokeswoman Carol Sandby said.

Behring Breivik's lawyer also told a newspaper on Friday that his client had planned to attack other targets.

"There were several projects of different scale for that Friday," Geir Lippestad was quoted as telling Aftenposten.

"Things happened that day, which I don't want to go into (here), which meant events unfolded differently from what he had planned," Lippestad added.

Norwegian police refused to identify other potential targets. However, one of the lead investigators, John Frederiksen, said: "What we can say on an operational level is that with the information obtained in the initial phase of our enquiries and from the elements published (by Behring Breivik), we have inspected a dozen sites to see if there was any kind of threat."

"We have not found anything" to back that up, he added.

Behring Breivik said in a 1,500-page manifesto published online just before the carnage, which doubled as a manual for would-be followers: "12 failed attempts on an extremely well-protected individual could have alternatively been 12 successful attacks on lesser targets, executing more than 50 primary targets."

Seventy-seven people were killed in the bomb attack in Oslo and the shootings on Utoeya, for which the 32-year-old extremist has acknowledged responsibility.

Psychiatrists are now assessing whether he is legally insane, as prosecutors seek to bring him to trial next year.