Police think the list of Fourniret's crimes may grow

Michel Fourniret showed officers where the bodies of two women were buried in the grounds of a chateau he once owned, and has admitted seven other murders.

Police have said they fear the list of victims could grow.

In Belgium and Denmark, police are also examining whether the convicted rapist could be linked to unsolved crimes.

"The fear we have now is that other crimes could now be confessed, could be brought to light and then the series [of murders] could stretch out dangerously," Belgian prosecutor Cedric Visart de Bocarme said.

Belgian detectives are looking into the cases of at least 15 other girls who disappeared over the past 20 years and whose bodies have never been found.

DNA samples

In France officers have opened dozens of files on crimes "attributed to or possibly attributable to Michel Fourniret", though they told the AFP news agency they would probably find no links in some of the cases.

Authorities in Denmark have sent DNA samples to their Belgian colleagues to see if Fourniret was behind the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl in 1999.

On Saturday the bodies of Jeanne-Marie Desramault, 22, and Elisabeth Brichet, 12, were recovered from the grounds of a chateau in northern France.

Two bodies were found in the grounds of a chateau

Fourniret, 62, had indicated the location of the graves to police.

His lawyer, Luc Balleux, said his client was "in good form" despite having confessed to killing nine people in Belgium and France between 1987 and 2001.

"He's relatively serene considering the circumstances... He told me he would help with the investigation," the lawyer said.

Fourniret has been in Belgian custody since June 2003, when he was arrested on charges of kidnapping and sexual misconduct.

The former forestry worker confessed after his wife, Monique Olivier, denounced him to Belgian police last month.