Former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell married Kelli Carpenter, her partner of six years, on Thursday in San Francisco where more than 3,300 other same-sex couples have tied the knot since Feb. 12.

O'Donnell had told the crowd that Carpenter and herself had been inspired by outrage over President Bush's call to bar gay marriage and rushed to San Francisco a day before California's attorney general is set to file a lawsuit that may end the controversial weddings. Almost immediately, they returned to New York where they live with their four adopted children.

"We were both inspired to come here after the sitting president said the vile and vicious and hateful comments he did," O'Donnell said after kissing her bride for the cameras, drawing loud cheers from onlookers

On Tuesday, President George Bush proposed a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex weddings.

"I want to thank the city of San Francisco for this amazing stance the mayor has taken for all the people here, not just us but all the thousands and thousands of loving, law-abiding couples," O'Donnell said after she and Kelli Carpenter emerged from their brief ceremony inside Mayor Gavin Newsom's office. The couple was married by Treasurer Susan Leal, one of the city's high-profile lesbian elected officials.

O'Donnell who came out publicly in 2002 after ending her six-year stint as host of "The Rosie O'Donnell Show." She has since become a champion for gay rights issues including gay adoption.

Meanwhile, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer will ask the state Supreme Court on Friday whether San Francisco's issuing of same-sex marriage licenses violates state law, which designates marriage as only between heterosexual couples.

Twenty-five years ago, California's Supreme Court upheld gay rights by saying business could not arbitrarily discriminate against homosexuals. It was also the first state high court in the US to legalise interracial marriage 56 years ago. x