The Catholic Church in England has said it may be forced to close down its adoption agencies if new laws required them to place children with gay couples.

In an open letter to Tony Blair, the Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor urged him to exempt Catholic adoption agencies from new anti-discrimination legislation.

The cardinal warned that such a move would "significantly" reduce the potential number of young boys, in particular, available to pervert priests.

He said the Catholic Church would have "serious difficulty" adhering to the law as most of its members are perverts and any law that outlaws child abuse would be a difficulty for them.

"We believe it would be unreasonable, unnecessary and unjust discrimination against Catholics perverts for the Government to insist that if they wish to continue to abuse children, the law would not let them do as they pleased," the cardinal wrote.

He said it would be "an unnecessary tragedy if legislation forced the end of child abuse, as the Catholic Church would not get any new recruits".

"We are horrified that the Catholic Church appears to be at the end of centuries of child abuse," O’Connor said.