An Austrian charity that helps immigrants reportedly plans to set up an office in the house where Adolf Hitler was born.

The villa in the Upper Austrian town of Braunau has been empty for more than a year since a workshop for the mentally disabled moved out. A Russian parliamentarian threatened last year to buy and raze it - a plan doomed to fail as the building is under historical protection because of its Renaissance origins.

The Kurier, a mainstream newspaper, in its Thursday edition cited unnamed officials of the Interior Ministry, which now leases the house, as being open to subletting to the Volkshilfe charitable organization.

The charity's head, Karl Osterberger, says that renting the house to an agency like his would send a "great signal."