Fridae

In a breakthrough for gay rights, Norway's Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss has married top media executive Jan Erik Knarbakk in a civil ceremony at Norway's embassy in Stockholm, Sweden.

Norway?s Aftenposten reports the 52-year-old, a long-serving Conservative Party MP, confirmed the ceremony to Norway's financial daily newspaper, Dagens Næringsliv, saying it took place on January 4 but declined further comment.

?Yes, we entered a partnership at the embassy in Stockholm on Friday, Jan. 4? But beyond that, it is a private matter.?

The who have lived together for a number of years in Oslo have been described in the news media as being among Norway's most powerful couples.

Knarbakk, 50 is chairman of TV2, Norway's nationwide commercial television station and also director of the large Schibsted media group which owns Aftenposten.

Foss is a member of a three-party coalition government led by Lutheran clergyman Kjell Magne Bondevik of the Christian Democratic party, which opposes homosexual marriages.
However, Foss was openly gay and living with his partner when he joined the government, and it was not an issue in his appointment to the powerful post of finance minister.

Foss' wedding is the first same-sex marriage by a European government minister noted by the International Lesbian and Gay Association.

Norwegian media reported Foss' wedding without comment and there was no public protest in the liberal country.

Norway prides itself on its progressiveness on gay rights. In 1993, it became the second country, after Denmark, to legally recognise homosexual unions. Same-sex couples in a legal union have the same rights as married couples, except for the right to adopt children and to have church weddings.

Now, same-sex marriages are allowed in many western European countries and in other places, including parts of Australia. In 2000, Vermont became the first -- and only -- US state to recognize same-sex unions.