Gay marriage to be outlawed in Australia

CANBERRA, June 6 (Reuters) Australia's conservative government will overrule same sex marriage laws in the nation's capital, Prime Minister John Howard today said, saying marriage should only be between men and women.

Howard's move, which mirrors the push by US President George W Bush to outlaw gay marriage across the United Sates, follows new laws by the self-governing Australian Capital Territory (ACT) to allow same-sex unions.

National laws in Australia say a marriage must be between a man and woman at the exclusion of all others, but the ACT laws would have given gay couples the same legal rights as married couples by describing the marriages as ''civil unions''.

''Our view is very simple. We are not prepared to accept something which is a plain attempt to equate civil unions with marriage,'' Howard told reporters.

Bush wants the US Senate to pass a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage after several state courts since 2003 ruled that state legislatures did not have the right to ban it.

Canada became the fourth country to legalise same-sex marriage in mid-2005 but the new conservative government will allow a free vote in parliament to decide whether the laws should be overturned.

Australia's centre-left Labor opposition said Howard was wrong to intervene over laws passed by the democratically elected ACT government, which administers the nation's capital Canberra.

''The law should recognise caring and loving relationships,'' Labor spokeswoman Nicola Roxon said, adding that gay couples continued to be discriminated against in areas such as pensions, tax and health and welfare benefits.

Reuters DKS GC1616