Pope asks lawmakers to defend traditional marriage

VATICAN CITY, Feb 10 (Reuters) Pope Benedict urged governments to oppose laws that weaken the institution of marriage, a day after Italy's government proposed a bill to recognise gay and unmarried couples.

Romano Prodi's centre-left administration stopped far short of proposing the recognition of gay marriage -- as has happened in Spain, another predominantly Catholic European country.

But the ''cohabiting people'' bill would give rights in areas such as inheritance, property and employment to unmarried couples, regardless of sex, who register their relationship officially.

Italian clerics have attacked the bill as an assault on marriage and Catholic newspaper Avvenire headed its coverage ''family under siege''. One Catholic cabinet member boycotted the ministerial meeting which passed the bill.

In an address to the new Colombian ambassador to the Vatican, Benedict expressed his concerns about ''laws which touch on very delicate questions like the transmission and defence of life, infirmity, the identity of the family and respect for marriage.

''It is necessary to call on the responsibility of secular figures in legislatures, government and the judiciary to ensure that laws always express the principles and values that conform to natural law and promote the authentic common good,'' he said, according to a text released by the Vatican.

The Pope has spoken out in the past against any form of ''civil unions'' that might share some similarities with marriage and, in his view, weaken that institution. France and Britain have recently granted legal rights to such couples.

Gay rights campaigners say the Italian bill was watered down under pressure from the Vatican which they believe should stay out of politics.

The centre-right opposition promised to fight the bill in parliament, where Prodi's coalition has only a narrow majority.

Reuters MS DB0907