TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — With less than a day to live, Timothy McVeigh sat in a 9-by-14 foot isolation cell a short walk from the federal death chamber, making phone calls to family members and writing letters.

Attorney Nathan Chambers said Sunday that while McVeigh feels remorse for the innocent people who died in the Oklahoma City bombing, the revelation that the FBI withheld thousands of documents from defense attorneys during the bombing trial reinforced McVeigh's anti-government views.

''He's sorry that 168 people died. He takes no joy in that,'' said Chambers who spoke with his client on Saturday and will meet with him again Sunday afternoon. ''But in his view, in his opinion, in pursuing his goal, it was necessary.''

McVeigh was transferred from his 8- by 10-foot cell at the U.S. Penitentiary to the holding cell at 5:10 a.m. EDT Sunday; he was secured in the cell 20 minutes later. McVeigh was cooperative and the move was without incident, U.S. Bureau of Prisons officials said.

Chambers said McVeigh is spending his final hours contacting those he cares about.

McVeigh, 33, is scheduled to die by chemical injection at 8 a.m. EDT Monday, the first person to be put to death by the federal government since 1963.

He wrote in a recent letter that he will die blaming the federal government for his actions.

In excerpts from letters to The Buffalo News released Saturday, McVeigh insisted the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building was necessary to send a message to what he called an out-of-control government.

''I am sorry these people had to lose their lives,'' McVeigh wrote his hometown newspaper. ''But that's the nature of the beast. It's understood going in what the human toll will be.''

He referred to the April 19, 1995, bombing as ''a legit tactic'' in his war against the government.

In Washington, an appeal was filed Saturday with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to allow McVeigh's execution to be videotaped, part of an unrelated case alleging the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment. The Justice Department opposed the move in a filing delivered to the high court Saturday night.

McVeigh's lawyers had wanted more time to review the nearly 4,500 pages of belatedly released FBI documents that caused the bomber's original May 16 execution date to be delayed. But their request for a stay was turned down last week by U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch in Denver and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

McVeigh then abandoned efforts to receive a stay. Attorney Chris Tritico said McVeigh gave up because he was convinced the Supreme Court wouldn't grant it after the 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.'''

A friend who traveled to Terre Haute at McVeigh's request said Saturday that McVeigh 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 the two Buffalo News reporters who received the recent letters.

''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.

''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.