Norway attacker got help to purchase equipment: lawyer

OSLO, Aug 4, 2011 (AFP) - Anders Behring Breivik said he received help abroad to purchase the equipment needed to carry out his deadly July 22 attacks, but will not say more until his political demands are met, his lawyer was quoted as saying Thursday.

"He obtained abroad almost all the materiel he used" to carry out the attacks, the rightwing extremist's defence lawyer Geir Lippestad said in comments published Thursday in the Verdens Gang (VG) daily.

He added his client had visited some 20 countries in his planning.

"He said that he met people and and that he obtained equipment during those trips. He said many people helped him obtain the equipment," he said following a third police interrogation of his client Wednesday.

The lawyer did not tell the paper if the alleged helpers shared Behring Breivik's views or if they were aware of his goal.

The 32-year-old has confessed to carrying out the twin attacks of July 22 which left 77 dead.

Eight were killed in a bomb he set off near the Labour-led government offices in central Oslo. He then went on a shooting rampage on an island where the Labour party's youth wing was holding a summer retreat, killing 69, many of them teenagers.

Behring Breivik has said he carried out the attacks alone, something police said was possible.

His lawyer told VG his client was refusing to provide more details about the help he received abroad "until his extravagant demands on a revolution in society were obtained."

In an interrogation session last Friday, Behring Breivik demanded the government's resignation and the king's abdication, according to Norwegian media.

He has said his acts were "cruel" but "necessary" as part of his "crusade" against the "Islamisation" of Europe and multiculturalism.