It was only after Malta-based anti-jihad blogger Paul Ray contacted the Norwegian police himself a few days ago that they asked to question him on the July 22 massacre.

“He contacted the police some days ago saying he wanted to come to Oslo to speak to us,” a spokesman for the Norwegian police said.

Mr Ray arrived in Oslo on Wednesday and spent five hours being interviewed by investigators. He had another session yesterday and the police do not rule out further interviews.

Mr Ray’s trip is being paid for by the Norwegian government.

The spokesman said that, so far, Mr Ray, who blogs under the pseudonym “Lionheart”, was being treated as a witness and not a suspect. He is not being detained, although the police were not in a position to say when he would leave the country.

“Lionheart” was thrust into the spotlight in the aftermath of the Oslo and Utøya Island mass murders when his pseudonym was twice mentioned in the 1,500 page manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, who is on trial for the bloodbath. There is, however, no reference to Mr Ray’s blog in the manifesto.

Mr Ray, a fundamentalist Christian, believes that Islam poses a threat to Europe and its way of life. He was one of the founders of the English Defence League, which he has since left and joined the Ancient Order of Templar Knights.

He had told The Times there were similarities in Mr Breivik’s ideologies and his but denied any contact with the killer. He also saw no connection between his ideology and the killings in Norway.

“If he was inspired by my blog, I could understand if he killed a group of Islamic fundamentalists... This guy killed nearly 100 children because of their political ideology and that in no way equates to my beliefs on my blog,” he had said.

After Mr Ray was hounded by the international press, the Norwegian police said they wanted to speak to him. Some three weeks later, anxious to clear his name, the blogger complained that he had not heard from them yet.