"There must be 'no tolerance' wherever there was reason to suspect abuse," German Education Minister Annette Schavan told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

The education minister said she would be meeting with ministers and educators in the coming days to discuss preventative measures.

Schavan's comments follow allegations by 20 victims that they were sexually violated at the elite Odenwald private school in Hessen and other recent revelations of child sex abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Church.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger on Sunday repeated her calls for a roundtable discussion with the Catholic Church. For the past two weeks she had requested a discussion to address what she described were the "legitimate grievances" of victims and discuss causes and impact of the scandal.

The Catholic Church has so far repeatedly rejected the justice minister's request, which she issued two week ago, to attend any such a panel meeting.

The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Robert Zollitsch, said last Sunday that such a discussion would only be appropriate if all relevant parties attended.

wl/dpa/AFP
Editor: Andreas Illmer