The Pope named 24 new cardinals today.

They include a large number of Italians, two Americans and prelates from key posts in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

The Pope announced the nominations, putting his mark on the body that will elect his successor.

Other key posts were Warsaw, Munich, Kinshasa, Quito, Lusaka, Zambia, and Sri Lanka.

With the church rocked by a global clerical sex abuse crisis, the Pope named as cardinal in Munich, his former diocese, Archbishop Reinhard Marx, who has been prominent in efforts to clean up the scandal in Germany. He was behind efforts to force out a bishop accused of physical abuse of children.

However, the Pope passed up giving a cardinal's red hat to Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who has been the Irish church's leading advocate for Catholic openness in its child-abuse scandals.

Many of the new cardinals head Vatican offices, including Archbishop Kurt Koch, a Swiss in charge of the Vatican's relations with other Christians and Jews.

Cardinals are close advisers to a Pope, but their key job is to elect the pontiff.

With the installation of the new cardinals, the pope in just five years has named nearly half of the 120 prelates under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave following his death.

Eight of the new cardinals under 80 are Italians, giving them a total of 25 - nearly half of the Europeans in the electing body of the College of Cardinals.

Italians held the papacy for 455 years until the election of Poland's John Paul II in 1978, followed by the current German-born pope in 2005.

"The preponderance of Italians would suggest the scale has tipped in favour of an Italian candidate for the next conclave," said Gerard O'Connell, a veteran Irish Vatican correspondent.