Austrian Fritzl remanded for a month in incest case

ST POELTEN, Austria (Reuters) - An Austrian court on Friday ordered Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and had seven children with her, to be kept in custody for a further month, a court spokesman said.

Lawyer Rudolf Mayer, representing Fritzl, made no objection at a 15-minute closed hearing, prosecution spokesman Gerhard Sedlacek told reporters outside the court.

He said it had not been decided when prosecutors would question Fritzl again after a session earlier this week.

Fritzl is in prison in the Lower Austria regional capital of St Poelten after the case that shocked the world emerged nearly two weeks ago.

Fritzl's daughter Elisabeth, 42, spent nearly a quarter of a century in a windowless cell in the basement of his house, giving birth to seven of his children.

Three of the six surviving children, now aged between 19 and 5 years, were locked up with their mother, while another three were raised by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie as their own. One child died shortly after birth.

Prosecutors are investigating Fritzl for rape, incest, coercion and the death of the baby, though he has not been charged. Police say he has admitted incarceration and incest.

The head of the police investigation, Franz Polzer, told Reuters on Friday the house above the cellar, in the small town of Amstetten was being minutely examined.

Work on the grounds and the cellar was largely complete except for some specialist electrical and electronic examination.

"We have been using sniffer dogs and ground radar in order not to have to dig up the whole area," he said.

Police still believe Fritzl had no other secret hideaways. "This prison was so complex, so extensive that this exhausted Mr Fritzl's capabilities," said Polzer.

Detectives will take a break over the Whitsun long weekend, with some 40 or 50 resuming work on the complex next Tuesday, Polzer said.

Fritzl said in an interview relayed via his lawyer this week that he became addicted to incest with his daughter.

Fritzl, who locked up Elisabeth in 1984 when she was 18, said he started raping his daughter a year later.

"My drive to have sex with Elisabeth grew stronger and stronger," Fritzl was quoted as saying.

"I knew Elisabeth didn't want me to do what I did to her. I knew that I was hurting her. ... It was like an addiction ... In reality, I wanted children with her."

(Writing by Paul Bolding in Vienna; editing by Keith Weir)