Heiko Junge / NTB Scanpix via Reuters

Anders Behring Breivik, left, sits next to his lawyer Tord Jordet during his trial in a courtroom in Oslo on Tuesday.

A Norwegian prison is looking to hire people to be friends with mass killer Anders Behring Breivik, according to reports.

Ila prison hopes to find people willing to play hockey, chess and otherwise interact with Breivik, who is on trial for massacring 77 people in a bomb attack in Oslo and a shooting at a summer camp for young people on Utoeya island in July last year.

Citing Norway's Verdens Gang, the U.K.’s Telegraph newspaper reported that the "friends" would be trained experts as Breivik, 33, is feared to be too dangerous to mix with other prisoners.

"It could be anything from a team for indoor hockey to people who are willing to play chess with him," Knut Bjarkeid, director of the Ila prison said, according to the Telegraph's translation.

Man sets himself on fire outside Breivik courthouse

Bjarkeid said it was feared that Breivik might take other prisoners hostage in an attempt to escape if he was allowed near them. The killer is expected to serve at least 21 years in prison.

Under Norway's laws, prisoners cannot be kept in isolation for a long time as that is considered to be unduly cruel, the AFP news agency said.

"Many of the initiatives around Breivik are designed to prevent hostage-taking," Bjarkeid told Verdens Gang. "This makes it impossible to provide normal contact with others."

Tears as victim's brother throws shoe at Norway mass killer Anders Breivik

Bjarkeid added while Breivik appeared calm in court, he was still a threat. "He is a soldier in phase three of his own war. He still behaves exactly as he himself has described in his manifesto."

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Courtesy FIDE

President of the World Chess Federation Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, left, meets with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a visit to Damascus, Syria on Sunday.

Syria leader Bashar Assad has taken time away from the deadly civil war raging in his country to consider the issue of chess tournaments for school children.

Assad - whose forces have killed more than 9,000 people in the past year, according to the United Nations - held a three-hour meeting on Sunday with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, an eccentric Russian in charge of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), according to a report on Chessbase News.

The pair discussed a project to teach chess in Syrian schools, according to a press release that said an international youth chess tournament could be held in Damascus in early June.

Last week a bomb attack in Damascus killed nine people, part of ongoing bloodshed around Syria.

Ilyumzhinov, a Russian politician who used to the run region of Kalmykia. has previously visited world leaders including former Libya despot Moammar Gadhafi.

He did not rule out the possibility that Assad could take part in the proposed tournament, telling Chessbase: "TheSyrian President plays chess very well – since his studies in London".

He also revealed that Assad wants to invite the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet and a leading figure in world Buddhism, to sanctify an ancient Buddhist temple in Syria.

The Independent newspaper in London reported that Ilyumzhinov told Russia’s Interfax news agency the pair had also discussed the humanitarian crisis in Syria.

 "Assad says he is adhering to the Kofi Annan peace plan,” Interfax quoted Ilyumzhinov as saying. “But the situation is being destabilized by the opposition, who are receiving huge numbers of weapons from neighboring countries."

The Independent also reported that Ilyumzhinov has previously claimed to have been abducted by aliens, and Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein, since killed, was among his friends.

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