It is becoming clearer that Anders Behring Breivik, the 32-year-old suspect in Friday's attacks in Norway, held radical right-wing views.
Police chief Sveinung Sponheim said his internet postings "suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views"."But whether that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen," he told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
Mr Breivik was a member of a Swedish neo-Nazi internet forum called Nordisk, according to Expo, a Swedish group monitoring far-right activity.
Online writings attributed to Mr Breivik suggest he believes Muslims are trying to "colonise" Western Europe and that he blames multiculturalism and "cultural Marxism" for permitting this.
In a post in Norwegian in an online forum on December 2009, a user named Anders Behring Breivik claims there is not one country where Muslims have peacefully lived with non-Muslims, stating that instead it has had "catastrophic consequences" for non-Muslims.
A 12-minute anti-Muslim video called Knights Templar 2083 in which images of Mr Breivik appear was also discovered online.
Mr Breivik appears to have created entries on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, though the accounts were set up just days ago on 17 July.
On the Facebook page attributed to him, he describes himself as a Christian and a conservative. The Facebook page is no longer available but it also listed interests such as bodybuilding and freemasonry.A Twitter account attributed to the suspect has also emerged but it only has one post, which is a quote from philosopher John Stuart Mill: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests."
Police say they are investigating whether there was a second attacker, as witness statements appear to suggest.
'Preparation' The gunman was described by witnesses who saw him on Utoeya island as tall and blond - and dressed in a police uniform. The image of him posted on Facebook depicts a blond, blue-eyed man.
The Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang quoted a friend as saying that the suspect turned to right-wing extremism in his late 20s.
Mr Breivik had no military background except for ordinary national service and no criminal record, it seems.
Police say he put down his weapon when told to, after a shooting spree which lasted about 90 minutes.
He is talking to them and has admitted firing weapons on the island, but it is not clear if he has confessed to anything else.A 1,500-page manifesto authored by "Andrew Berwick" has emerged which has been attributed to Mr Breivik by Norwegian media, though his involvement has not been confirmed.
The manifesto, called 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, minutely elaborates the author's belief that a process of "Islamisation" is under way.
It also gives a detailed account of the author's "preparation phases", apparently for an "armed struggle" which he says seems "futile at this point but... is the only way forward".
During this preparation, the author details how he sets up front companies to allow the purchase of fertiliser, which can be used in bomb-making, and the steps he takes to obtain powerful guns - including joining a firearms club in 2005 to increase his chances to obtain a Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol six years later.
He also claims to have bought three bottles of 1979 vintage French wine, and decides to open one with his family at Christmas as his "martyrdom operation draws ever closer".
On Saturday it was confirmed that Mr Breivik was previously a member of the right-wing Progress Party (FrP), the second largest party in Norway's parliament.
A statement on the FrP website said he became a member in 1999 and paid his last membership fee in 2004. He was deleted from the member registry in 2006.
He was a member of St Hanshaugen FrP, a local party chapter in a borough of Oslo, in 2001-2003.
He was also a member of the FrP youth wing from 1997 to 2006/2007. He deleted his membership in 2007.
'Ordinary boy' Mr Breivik was born in London, where his father, a diplomat, had been stationed at the time. Jens Breivik - long estranged from his son - has expressed shock at the crime.
"I view this atrocity with absolute horror," he was quoted as saying by London's Telegraph newspaper from his home in south-west France.
He divorced Anders's mother, a nurse, when the child was one year old, moved to Paris and married again. From then on, he had limited contact with the boy."When he was young, he was a very ordinary boy. He was not interested in politics at the time," Jens Breivik said.
Their relationship broke down when Anders was a teenager, and the father and son have not spoken since then.
Anders Breivik is believed to have grown up in Oslo, and studied at the Oslo School of Management, which offers degrees and postgraduate courses.
A school friend told Norwegian TV he did not recognise him as the boy he knew.
"One of his good work-out buddies was from the Middle East, and it seems as though they were good friends all through junior high school, and hung out a lot together," Michael Tomala said.
"It seems as though he has taken a completely different direction than what we knew of him from junior high school."
He later appears to have moved out of the city and established Breivik Geofarm, a company Norwegian media is describing as a farming sole proprietorship set up to cultivate vegetables, melons, roots and tubers.
A supply company has come forward to say that it delivered six tonnes of fertiliser to this company in May - an ingredient used in bomb-making.
The FrP statement said "those who knew the suspect when he was a member of the party say that he seemed like a modest person that seldom engaged himself in the political discussions".
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