Croatia registers first gay 'life partners'

Croatia has registered the first civil partnership between two men, a gay rights activist said today, in an event hailed as a "major step forward" for the staunchly Catholic country.

"History was created in Zagreb as the first life partnership was concluded between two men," Marko Jurcic of the Zagreb Pride gay rights group told AFP.

"It was a brief ceremony held in Zagreb on Friday that was attended also by Administration Minister Arsen Bauk who presented the two with ties," he added.

Local media quoted Bauk describing the event a "major step forward".

In a referendum sought by a Church-backed group, Croatians voted last year to amend the constitution to include a definition of marriage as a "union between a woman and a man".

However Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic's centre-left government pledged to improve gay rights and adopted a bill enabling homosexual couples to register as "life partners".

The law, which came into force in July, grants gay couples the same rights as heterosexual couples except on child adoption.