Hong Kong: A Buddhist monk in Hong Kong has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography following his arrest after an Interpol-led investigation, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Police arrested the 41-year-old monk, Chow Yee Cheong, in May, during a raid of his monastery in which they seized child pornography videos and photographs from a computer hard drive and two video compact discs, the South China Morning Post reported.

The paper said Interpol had informed the Hong Kong police that Chow had subscribed to a commercial child-abuse website based in Britain.

Chow was quoted as saying he had downloaded the illegal materials out of "curiosity and sexual desire".