The British Ministry of Defense announced last Thursday that the partners of gay and lesbian servicemembers killed during the war in Iraq will receive their military pensions and other benefits, The [London] Times reports.

Under existing legislation, only the legal spouses of military personnel who die in active service are entitled to a Ministry of Defense pension.

The new scheme, which also applies to unmarried heterosexual partners, will cover surviving partners of unmarried couples where there was "a substantial relationship."

Under the new plan, which goes into effect immediately, the boyfriend or girlfriend of a service member killed in combat would be eligible for up to 90% of that partner's pension. "Each case will be judged on its own merits," an official told the Times. "It will not be an automatic payout."

The eligibility of claimants would be judged on a range of criteria including financial dependence or interdependence, children, shared commitments such as a mortgage, whether the claimant is the prime beneficiary of a will, shared accommodation and the absence of a legal spouse.

While openly gay military personnel are permitted to serve in the European Union and Canada where same-sex partners have been eligible for military pensions for several years, the US military does not allow its gay and lesbian service members to serve openly much less recognise those service members' same-sex partners.

American servicemembers have no such benefit said Steven Ralls of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Currently, US gay servicemembers can instruct the military to notify their partner if they are injured or killed in combat.

Although same-sex partners are not entitled to receive spousal benefits from the pensions of men and women in the military, a servicemember can select their partner to be the recipient of a military insurance plan but they must list their partner as "a person of interest" not a spouse or partner, under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.