The Curia's Response Team set up to investigate claims of child abuse by priests does not make its conclusions public, but instead communicates them to the interested parties.

Once the Response Team concludes that there was "a semblance of truth in the accusations", the Vatican may appoint an ad hoc tribunal to decide on the punishment, with the harshest being the dismissal from priesthood, a spokesman for the Curia told The Sunday Times.

The team, headed by retired judge Victor Caruana Colombo, is still investigating the cases involving four priests which came to light in 2003. The criminal cases against three of the priests have not been concluded either.

Ten men claim to have been abused by priests in a St Venera orphanage in the 1980s and 1990s, in a case which made world headlines when Pope Benedict XVI visited Malta last month and met the alleged victims.

Replying to questions on procedure, the spokesman explained that the Response Team's decision will be communicated to the interested parties, including the head of the Maltese church.

Archbishop Paul Cremona will be "obliged" to refer the case, together with the necessary documentation, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is the competent authority that deals with these issues.

The Congregation may authorise Mgr Cremona to set up a special tribunal, similar to the Ecclesiastical Tribunal, to determine the fate of priests involved in the scandal.

Asked whether there will be a separate tribunal for each of the priests, should a basis for the allegations be established, the spokesman said this will only be decided by the Vatican's Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Mgr Charles Scicluna.

The spokesman would not comment on claims that a fourth priest was still being investigated by the Response Team, despite a declaration by police that his case was time-barred.

However, the Curia said that although according to Canon Law cases are time-barred after 10 years of their commission, there is no such restriction on suspected child abuse cases.