Belgium set to legalise gay marriages

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Belgium is a step closer to legalising gay and lesbian marriages after its cabinet approved a bill on the issue.

If the bill is also approved when it is debated by parliament Belgium would become the second country in the world to legalise homosexual weddings after the Netherlands.

The bill would amend the country's civil code to grant couples of the same sex almost the same legal status as heterosexual couples, Reuters news agency reported. However, it would not allow same-sex couples to adopt children.

The bill, approved by the country's core cabinet on Friday, will be presented to parliament in the next few weeks, a Justice Ministry spokesman told Reuters on Saturday.

"It could become law at the beginning of 2002 at the earliest," he said.

The bill follows a law passed in 1998 granting gay and lesbian couples, who live together as households, many of the legal rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples.

In April, the Netherlands witnessed the world's first legal homosexual weddings as a lesbian and three gay couples tied the knot minutes after a law came into effect on the first day of the month.