Austria's justice minister said local authorities were gullible in their dealings with Josef Fritzl, who has admitted imprisoning his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children.

The comments from Justice Minister Maria Berger were the first time the government has acknowledged official shortcomings in the handling of the case.

"Looking at everything that we know up to now, I can see a certain gullibility - especially when it comes to that tale that she had joined a sect, with which the suspect explained the disappearance of his daughter," Berger told Austrian daily Der Standard in remarks published yesterday.