Norwegian police took confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik back to Utoeya island to stage a reconstruction of his hour-long slaughter of 69 people there three weeks ago.

In a photograph of the visit carried by the VG newspaper, 32-year-old Breivik is shown standing in a shooting position, as if aiming a rifle at someone in the water trying to swim away.

Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik, the man accused of a killing spree and bomb attack in Norway, sits in the rear of a vehicle as he is transported in a police convoy as he is leaving the courthouse in Oslo, in this July 25, 2011 file picture. [Agencies]

"We were able to animate his memory with regard to what happened out there," police prosecutor Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby told reporters on Sunday, adding that "many new details" emerged in the eight-hour journey around the island on Saturday.

 

"It was clear the suspect was not unmoved at being back on Utoeya, but he did not want to elaborate on it to anyone and there was no expression of regret for his actions," Kraby said.

In VG's long-lens pictures Breivik is shown harnessed with a rope leash while clad in a bullet-proof vest and red sweater as he led investigators around Utoeya under heavily armed protection. At times he also wore handcuffs and ankle cuffs.

Kraby described Breivik as calm and cooperative, as he has remained throughout almost 60 hours of interrogation conducted since the July 22 shooting at Utoeya which followed a car bomb explosion on the same day in Oslo that killed eight.

The victims of the mass shooting had been attending an island summer camp run by the youth wing of Norway's Labour Party, which Breivik condemned in a rambling manifesto for promoting multiculturalism.

Most of the island victims were in their teens or 20s, and some were shot while attempting to swim to safety.

Despite Breivik's admission that he committed the attacks, Kraby said, an extensive reconstruction was needed to show survivors and relatives exactly what happened.

"It's important they get to know as much as possible about what happened on the island, even if it has to come from the suspect himself," said Kraby.

"We're seeking as many details as possible about each killing."