OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Relatives of Oklahoma City bombing victims said Thursday they are thankful they will be able to see Timothy McVeigh's execution on closed-circuit TV and that watching it as a group will allow them to support each other.

"It just pleases me to no end," said Dan McKinney, whose wife, Linda, was among the 168 people killed April 19, 1995, at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. "I'm very thankful. I don't know what we would have done if we didn't get to see it."

McKinney spoke after U.S. Attorney General John Aschcroft announced the decision to allow survivors and victims' families to watch the execution by closed-circuit television in Oklahoma City.

Like many relatives, McKinney hopes to be chosen for one of 10 victims' witness seats in the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., where McVeigh is scheduled to die May 16. But McKinney doesn't want to go alone.

If McKinney wins a seat and his daughter does not, he'll give it to another relative or survivor.

Families plan to support each other as they see McVeigh strapped to a gurney and hear his last words.

"Anything that he says now is something to try to open our wounds deeper," McKinney said. "It's not going to work. He's done all that he can do to me. After May the 16th, that man can never, ever, to any degree, bother me again."

Tom Kight, whose daughter Frankie Merrell died in the bombing, said he appreciates Ashcroft's quick decision. He's also hoping for one of the 10 seats next to the death chamber but will be satisfied watching a closed-circuit telecast in Oklahoma City.

"I want to be with the rest of the families," he said. "There are a lot of us who have become like a family."

Kight plans to watch with Jannie Coverdale, who lost two grandsons.

"I just don't know how I'm going to react," Kight said. "Nobody does. It's a tough deal."

In Washington, Ashcroft also said McVeigh would be able to talk to the media up to 15 minutes a day by telephone, but no longer. He said no recording of the telephone calls would be allowed.

Roy Sells, whose wife, Lee, died in the Department of Housing and Urban Development office, said he is satisified that McVeigh will not be allowed to have recorded interviews, but said he fears that McVeigh may use his final statement to say something hurtful.

"It worries me, I just believe you cannot estimate or even think about what he might say, I'm just afraid that he's going to say something that's going to hurt the families more than ever," Sells told KOCO-TV.

Priscilla Salyers, a bombing survivor who accompanied Ashcroft on a tour of the bombing memorial Tuesday, said she knew the attorney general would agree to their requests as long as they were legal.

"I felt like he truly listened to everybody who spoke," she said. "He repeated what they said so he understood what their needs were. When he left here, I felt he would do everything possible to accommodate us."