A NORWEGIAN court has denied the prosecutors of mass killer Anders Breivik the insanity ruling they hoped would show that his massacre of 77 people was the work of a madman, instead jailing him for 21 years.

But in a final provocation Breivik said he was only sorry he had not killed more people.

Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bomb attack and massacre that shook the nation to the core, said he wanted to "apologise to all militant nationalists in Norway and in Europe for not having killed more people".

He smiled with apparent satisfaction when Judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen read the ruling, declaring him sane enough to be held criminally responsible and sentencing him to "preventive detention," which means it is unlikely he will ever be released, even though a formal minimum term of 10 years applies.

He was cut off mid-sentence as his microphone was silenced by the court.

Breivik's sentence, the maximum allowed in Norway, can be reviewed and extended indefinitely if the far-right extremist responsible for Europe's deadliest peacetime gun rampage is deemed a continued threat to society.

After judges read out their verdict in a marathon seven-and-a-half-hour session, Breivik told the court he would not appeal the prison sentence, reiterating that he did not recognise the court's legitimacy.

He had wished to be found sane so that his Islamophobic and anti-multicultural ideology would not be considered the rantings of a lunatic.

"In my view this sentence and judgement is illegitimate," the 33-year-old said.

"At the same time I cannot appeal against the judgement because by appealing I would legitimise the court."

At both the start and end of the trial, Breivik raised his clenched fist in a defiant far-right salute, as he had done often during the trial.

The prosecution, which had asked for him to be sent to closed psychiatric care, also said it did not plan to appeal, which is likely to spell the end of the case.

On July 22, 2011, Breivik started his rampage when he set off a van bomb in Oslo that killed eight people and then killed 69 people, mostly teenagers, in a shooting frenzy at an island summer camp near the capital.

A five-member panel at the Oslo District Court unanimously found Breivik guilty of "acts of terror", ending a spectacular 10-week trial for Norway's worst post-World War II massacre.

"The ruling is unanimous," presiding judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen told the court, packed with emotional survivors and relatives of victims.

"He is sentenced to prison for 21 years, with a minimum of 10 years."

Breivik, wearing a dark suit with a white shirt and a grey tie, smiled as the verdict was read out in court.

Knut Storberget, who was Norway's justice minister at the time of the attacks, hailed the sentence, telling television channel TV2: "It's a good basis for him to stay in prison for the rest of his life."

"It's the heaviest sentence he could get."

Norway's penal code does not have the death penalty or life in prison, and the maximum prison term for Breivik's charges is 21 years. However, inmates who after that are still considered a threat to society can be held indefinitely.

Judge Arntzen said the court found him to be legally sane because his hateful ravings reflected his extreme rightwing world view rather than psychotic delusions.

While Breivik suffered from personality disorders, acccording to experts, he was not psychotic, she stressed.

Most Norwegians wanted Breivik to be found sane and responsible for his actions, after it came out that he spent years methodically planning his attacks.

And most survivors of the Utoeya island massacre said they were pleased with the sentence and hoped they could now move on with their lives.

"It has been one hell of a year. I hope with today it will be over," 19-year-old Caroline Svendsen said.

She was one of the few who questioned the sanity ruling, saying "no one in their right mind would do this."

Others took to Twitter immediately. Viljar Hansse, who survived a bullet to the head in the shooting spree, tweeted: "Finished. Period."

Another Utoeya island survivor, Ingrid Nymoen, said in a short message: "This crap is finally over. Life can start now."

"It's a good and correct ruling," tabloid VG wrote in an editorial on its online edition, adding that Breivik "knew what he was doing, that it was evil."

An expert psychiatrist monitoring the Breivik case agreed.

"Breivik showed a high degree of consistency during his detention," Kjersti Narud told Norwegian news agency NTB.

"I can't rule out that he might have been suffering from psychosis at the time of the attacks, but if he was, it could not have been extreme enough to exempt him from criminal responsibility."

-- Breivik thought he was 'perfect foot soldier' --



The main question the court had to answer was whether Breivik, a self-styled Nordic warrior against Europe's "Muslim invasion" and multiculturalism, was sane and could be held responsible for his actions.

Breivik, who laid out his hateful world view in a rambling 1500-page online manifesto, was initially diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and declared criminally insane after his arrest for the deadly rampage.

However, a public outcry led to a second assessment which found him legally sane, an opinion shared by most Norwegians according to surveys.

Judge Arntzen recounted Breivik's Oslo childhood, his later failed business ventures, including selling fake diplomas, and a trip to Liberia, before he moved back in with his mother.

From 2006 to 2008 he committed himself to the real-time online role-playing game 'World of Warcraft', for up to 16 hours a day, she said.

He spent his time in seclusion penning his manifesto 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, the date marking the 400th anniversary of the 1683 Battle of Vienna which prevented the Ottoman empire from taking over Europe.

She recounted that Breivik called himself the "cell commander", "knight" or "perfect foot soldier" of a clandestine group called the Knights Templar, the name of an order of Crusaders during the Middle Ages.

But the judge said the court "has found no evidence for the existence of the Knights Templar" group Breivik claimed to have co-founded.

The court also heard about the lengths Breivik went to to plot his attacks.

Judge Arne Lyng said Breivik took steroids, worked out at a fitness centre and went on hikes with a backpack full of rocks.

In the days before the attacks, he started taking a cocktail of ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin - a stimulant mix with an effect similar to that of amphetamine that boosts confidence, the willingness to take risks and leads to "increased risk of aggression and violence" according to experts, Judge Lyng added.

He also practised a meditation technique, borrowed from ancient Japanese warriors, "to de-emotionalise himself", and before the attacks played a total of 130 hours of a shooting video game "Call of Duty", the judge said.

Breivik is expected to serve his sentence at the high-security Ila prison near Oslo.