Norway today mourned the 93 people killed in a shooting spree and car bombing by a Norwegian who saw his attacks as "atrocious, but necessary" to defeat liberal immigration policies and the spread of Islam.
In his first comment via a lawyer since his arrest, Anders Behring Breivik (32) said he wanted to explain himself at a court hearing tomorrow about extending his custody.
"He has said that he believed the actions were atrocious, but that in his head they were necessary," Geir Lippestad said.
The lawyer said Breivik had admitted to Friday's shootings at a Labour party youth camp and the bombing that killed seven people in Oslo's government district a few hours earlier.
However, "he feels that what he has done does not deserve punishment," Mr Lippestad told NRK public television.
"What he has said is that he wants a change in society and in his understanding, in his head, there must be a revolution."
Oslo's acting police chief Sveinung Sponheim confirmed to reporters that Breivik would be able to speak to the court. It was not clear whether the hearing would be closed or in public.
"He has admitted to the facts of both the bombing and the shooting, although he's not admitting criminal guilt," Mr Sponheim said, adding that Breivik had said he acted alone.
Police were checking this because some witness statements from the island spoke of more than one gunman, Mr Sponheim said.
King Harald and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg were among mourners at a service in Oslo cathedral today, where the premier spoke emotionally about the victims, some of whom he knew.
"This represents a national tragedy," he declared.
Police have been criticised for the time it took them to reach the island once the alarm was raised.
An inadequate boat and a decision to await a special armed unit from Oslo, 45km away, delayed the response.
"When so many people and equipment were put into it, the boat started to take on water, so that the motor stopped," said Erik Berga, police operations chief in Buskerud County.
As the country attempts to come to terms with the twin attacks people are trying to understand what motivated the suspected killer.
Breivik posted a 1,500-page anti-Islamic manifesto, written in English, on Friday, describing his violent philosophy and how he planned his onslaught and made explosives.
The killings would draw attention to the manifesto entitled "2083-A European Declaration of Independence", he wrote.
"Once you decide to strike, it is better to kill too many than not enough, or you risk reducing the desired ideological impact of the strike," he added.
The manifesto posted by Breivik, a self-styled founder member of a modern Knights Templar organisation, hints at a wider conspiracy of self-appointed crusaders and shows a mind influenced by the fantasy imagery of online gaming.
"The order is to serve as an armed Indigenous Rights Organisation and as a Crusader Movement (anti-Jihad movement)," he writes in the document, chunks of which are cut and pasted from other far-right, anti-Islam documents on the Internet.
Breivik also attacks the "Islamic colonisation and Islamisation of Western Europe" and the "rise of cultural Marxism/multiculturalism".
A video posted on YouTube called "Knights Templar 2083" showed pictures of Breivik, including one of him in a scuba diving outfit pointing an automatic weapon.
Parliament, in recess until October, is to be recalled for a memorial service. Party leaders will discuss how the attacks would affect campaigning for local elections in September.
"We will have an election, we will have a political debate," said prime minister Stoltenberg.
"But I believe everyone understands that we have to discuss the form of the debate...to avoid a conflict between the political debate and the need to show dignity and compassion." Erna Solberg, head of the main opposition Conservative Party, said: "We have to agree the rules of the game."
Norway has long been open to immigration, which has been criticised by the populist Progress Party, to which Breivik once belonged. Labour, whose youth camp he attacked, backs multi-culturalism to accommodate different ethnic communities.
"Norway will keep going. But there will be a Norway before and after the dramatic attacks on Friday," Mr Stoltenberg said.
"But I am quite sure that you will also recognise Norway afterwards - it will be an open Norway, a democratic Norway and a Norway where we take care of each other." The attacks have prompted soul-searching in Norway.