A jury today formally convicted Josef Fritzl of the rape, incest, homicide and enslavement charges he had already pleaded guilty to in Austria.

Earlier today, Fritzl made a pathetic plea for mercy from the jury that will decide his sentence.

In a weak and shaky voice, the man who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered seven children by rape said: ''I regret it with all my heart... I can't make it right anymore.''

But prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser told them Fritzl should not be spared simply because he admitted his string of terrible crimes and called for the maximum punishment.

She urged the Austrian jury to think about his daughter Elisabeth's nearly quarter-century ordeal as it considers how much time he should serve.

''Don't be duped like Elisabeth was 24 years ago,'' when Fritzl took her captive in a cramped, rat-infested dungeon he built beneath the family's home, she said.

Verdicts and sentences were expected later today in the case, which has drawn worldwide attention.

Fritzl, 73, pleaded guilty yesterday to all the charges against him, including causing the death of one of the children, a baby boy. Prosecutors say the child might have survived if Fritzl had arranged for medical care.

''Any amateur could have determined that the child was in the throes of death for 66 hours,'' Ms Burkheiser said, arguing that Fritzl should be locked up for the rest of his life for refusing to intervene and save the baby's life.

Fritzl also has pleaded guilty to enslavement, rape, incest, forced imprisonment and coercion.

Eva Plaz, a lawyer for Elisabeth and the other victims, also urged the jury not to lessen Fritzl's sentence just because he pleaded guilty. In Austria, guilty pleas can be a mitigating factor.

Fritzl's pleas ''were not a confession,'' Plaz said.

Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, did not argue that Fritzl was innocent - even telling the court at one point that Fritzl raped his daughter 3,000 times. But he said Fritzl had been plagued with guilt for the past 24 years, and he asked the jurors to take a hard look at the homicide charge.

''Look closely at murder. In my opinion, that's not what it is,'' Mr Mayer told the hearing in St. Poelten, near Vienna..

Mr Mayer confirmed today that Elisabeth had been in the courtroom earlier this week, and he said Fritzl decided to stop contesting the homicide and enslavement counts after viewing her 11-hour heart-wrenching videotaped testimony.

Elisabeth, the prosecution's key witness, is 42. She was 18 when Fritzl imprisoned her in the squalid cell he built beneath the family's home in the town of Amstetten, where he raped her for years, sometimes in front of the children.

Elisabeth and her six surviving children, who range in age from six to 20, have spent months recovering in a psychiatric clinic and at a secret location. Prosecutors have described her as a ''broken'' woman.

Police say DNA tests prove Fritzl is the biological father of all six surviving children, three of whom never saw daylight until the crime was exposed 11 months ago.

The three other children were brought upstairs to be raised by Fritzl and his wife, Rosemarie, who was led to believe they were abandoned by Elisabeth when she ran off to join a cult.