McVeigh execution looms

McVeigh has been moved to the execution building

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, now less than an hour from execution, is "calm and ready to die", according to his lawyers.

McVeigh is spending his final 24 hours in a tiny cell at Terre Haute prison in Indiana next to the execution chamber where will receive a lethal injection at 0700 local time (1200GMT) on Monday.

He is calm ... quite frankly, he is ready to die

Robert Nigh, lawyer

Speaking after a final meeting with McVeigh, his lawyer Robert Nigh said his client was in an affable mood and had not lost his sense of humour.

Mr Nigh added that McVeigh regretted the loss of life in the 1995 bombing, but did not believe that carrying out the attack itself was wrong.

McVeigh has been served his final meal - a litre of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

A prison spokesman said that the ice cream was McVeigh's "final, official requested meal", but added that he could ask for more food before the execution if he wanted to.

No videotaping

In his letters to local newspapers, McVeigh has said he has no fear of execution or what might come after, and added that he would "improvise, adapt and overcome" if he did find there was an afterlife.

McVeigh: No photographs of his final hours

"If I am going to hell, I'm gonna have a lot of company," he said.

On Sunday, the Supreme Court turned down a request to allow the videotaping of the execution, backing an earlier ruling by a federal appeals court.

The request for the recording had been made by lawyers in an unrelated death penalty case seeking support for their argument that the federal death penalty violates the US constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishments.

Lethal injection

Ingredient:
sodium pentothal
Effect: causes unconsciousness

Ingredient:
Pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride
Effect: stops heart and lung function

Time: 10-15 minutes

Opponents of the death penalty have repeatedly pressed the government to allow McVeigh's execution to be televised, believing such an airing would help their campaign.

The US Justice Department has fought against any videotaping, citing a federal regulation that prohibits any photographic, visual or audio recording of executions.

McVeigh has refused to allow any pictures of himself in Terre Haute prison.

'Circle of silence'

The authorities in Terre Haute are on the alert for any violence by McVeigh sympathisers.

The victims are not forgotten as attention focuses on McVeigh

State, city and county offices will remain closed on Monday and summer school and recreational activities on school property have been cancelled.

Roman Catholic nuns plan to hold a 168-minute "circle of silence" on Sunday evening outside the prison to pray for bomb victims as well as for McVeigh and his family.

About 1,400 members of the media are expected to gather in the town, as well as some of the people touched by the disaster.

Only 10 survivors or victims relatives will be allowed to witness the execution. About another 300 will watch via closed-circuit television in Oklahoma City.