ST POELTEN (Austria) - 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'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. -- REUTERS