The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland said yesterday he would only quit if Pope Benedict XVI asks him to go, following allegations over his role in a clerical sex abuse probe.

Victims' groups want Cardinal Sean Brady to quit over revelations he attended 1975 meetings where children allegedly abused by one of Ireland's most notorious serial paedophiles were asked to take a vow of secrecy.

One woman abused as a child said Cardinal Brady had "unclean hands" which bore "the bloodstains of many victims" and urged him to go - while the opposition Labour party called for a police probe into his role.

Speaking on BBC radio, Cardinal Brady said that 35 years ago there had been culture of "silence" and "secrecy" about sex abuse in both Church circles and civil society.

"I will only resign if asked by the holy father," Cardinal Brady said when asked if he would quit if pressure grows further.

A Church statement at the weekend said that at two meetings complainants "signed undertakings, on oath, to respect the confidentiality of the information gathering process" concerning Father Brendan Smyth.

Fr Smyth, who is believed to have abused hundreds of children over a 40-year period in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the US, was jailed in the 1990s in Dublin and died in prison.

Cardinal Brady told the BBC's Radio Ulster he knew Fr Smyth's activities were crimes "but he did not feel that it was his responsibility to denounce" the paedophile priest's actions".