Rome, Jan 6 (DPA) There was embarrassment and irritation at the Vatican over the controversial new archbishop of Warsaw Stanislaw Wielgus, who has been accused of working for the Polish secret service, Italian press reports said Saturday.

Some members of the Roman Curia, the administrative body that runs the Vatican, expressed concern that Pope Benedict XVI's reputation could be damaged by the affair, La Repubblica reported.

Especially now that Wielgus has admitted working for the secret service, Benedict risked "cutting a poor figure". Nobody wanted to express it openly in the Vatican, "but the irritation is great", the report said.

Polish members of the Curia have demanded that Wielgus step down.

"Archbishop of Warsaw had such a start to his term in office is terrible," said Adam Boniecki, director of the Polish edition of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

The Vatican officially announced a few days ago that "they had investigated all the circumstances of his life, including those which related to his past" in their decision to appoint Wielgus archbishop.

The Vatican added more explicitly, "That means that the Holy Father has the utmost trust in Stansilaw Wielgus."

The official ceremony installing Wielgus as archbishop is scheduled for Sunday.

On Friday, Wielgus publicly expressed his regret for his error. According to him, he had cooperated with the secret service in order to be able to continue travelling abroad, but he never reported anyone to the service, nor had his contacts with the service caused anyone any harm.