TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — Timothy McVeigh doesn't want to die but dropped his appeals because he was certain the U.S. Supreme Court would turn him down, one of his lawyers said Saturday, less than two days before the Oklahoma City bomber's scheduled execution.

McVeigh was to be moved from his 8- by 10-foot cell at the U.S. Penitentiary to a holding cell in the nearby death chamber sometime before 8 a.m. EDT Sunday, 24 hours before he is to be put to death. McVeigh attorney Chris Tritico said he expected the move would happen by the end of Saturday.

In Washington, an appeal was filed Saturday with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to allow McVeigh's execution to be videotaped. A federal appeals court on Friday rejected the request, part of an unrelated case alleging the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment.

Tritico said McVeigh dropped his bid for a stay because he was convinced the Supreme Court wouldn't grant it after two lower courts turned him down.

''I don't view that as 'I want to die,' '' Tritico said outside the federal prison. ''I view that as a realization that 'I'm going nowhere with this process, so let's stop doing it.'''

McVeigh's lawyers had wanted more time to review nearly 4,500 pages of belatedly released FBI documents for information they felt could have helped in his defense during the 1997 trial.

McVeigh, 33, was convicted of the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, which killed 168 people -- the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil. His execution, by chemical injection, will be the first by the federal government since 1963.

Once in the holding cell, Tritico said, McVeigh plans to spend time preparing himself for his execution.

''I think that he wants to spend his last few days alone,'' Tritico said.

A friend of McVeigh, in Terre Haute at McVeigh's request, said Saturday that McVeigh has no remorse about the actual bombing but would have chosen a different target had he known a day care center was in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran, had called the children ''collateral damage'' in a book about the bombing written by two reporters.

''I do believe he has remorse about the innocent people and particularly the children that died in the bombing,'' said Bob Papovich, who lives about three miles from convicted bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' farm in Michigan, where McVeigh lived at one time.

''I know everyone thinks he's totally cold-hearted, and I think part of that is an act,'' Papovich said Saturday. ''Had he known there was a day care center, contrary to what has been reported, he would have chose another target, there's no doubt in my mind.''

Papovich said McVeigh will be ready when the execution process begins.

''Tim has no fear whatsoever,'' said Papovich, who has corresponded with McVeigh by mail and over the phone since he's been in prison. ''He's been prepared for this for sometime. He's very businesslike.''

Tritico spoke of his client, whom he described as a friend, in ways that contrast sharply with the image America has come to know.

''When I first went to the prison to meet him I expected to meet this seething government-hater who couldn't talk about anything but the government,'' the lawyer recalled.

''What I met was this young man who was friendly, easy to get along with and extremely intelligent and easy to work with.''

McVeigh admitted his guilt in the reporters' book and said that he acted alone. He abandoned his previous appeals in December and asked that his execution be scheduled quickly. But days before the original May 16 date for his death, the FBI revealed it had withheld thousands of documents from defense attorneys.

Attorney General John Ashcroft delayed the execution and McVeigh's attorneys tried to seek a stay. But they were turned down this week by a U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch in Denver and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Matsch ruled that it was clear McVeigh was ''the instrument of death and destruction'' in the bombing, and said the new FBI evidence did nothing to call his guilt into question.