Hours after the church renewed an apology to victims of abuse, Pope Benedict's former diocese of Munich confirmed that as archbishop in 1980, he approved housing for the priest.

The priest, identified only as H, had been accused of forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform a sex act.

"It was decided in 1980 to give H accommodation in a rectory so that he could receive therapy. The archbishop (Pope Benedict) took part in this decision," the German diocese of Munich and Freising said.

Six years later, the priest was given a suspended prison sentence for child sex offences.

The archdiocese said he still worked in Bavaria, with no known repeat violations.

The revelations began in January, when an elite Jesuit school in Berlin admitted systematic sexual abuse of pupils by two priests in the 1970s and 1980s.

German education minister Annette Schavan has said there should be "zero tolerance" of child sex abuse.

Most of the priests implicated in the allegations are not expected to face criminal charges because the alleged crimes took place too long ago.

But there have been growing calls for a change in the law, and for the church to pay compensation.

Pope Benedict has spoken out several times since the start of his papacy in 2005 to condemn paedophilia among clergymen, and he has met with abuse victims in Australia and the United States.

In February, he held meetings with top church officials in Ireland where a similar scandal was compounded by evidence that the hierarchy covered up for predators.

The Pope then called child abuse a "heinous crime" and a "grave sin".