Fridae

Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Monday condemned a law passed by Australian Capital Territory (ACT) to allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt children.

In a radio interview on Monday, he hinted that his government is considering using his government's rarely exercised power to block the newly passed law which was only passed a law last month and expected to take effect in April.

"I'm against gay adoption, just as I'm against gay marriage," Howard, told the Sydney radio station.

"I'm a social conservative. I think there are certain benchmark institutions and arrangements in our society that you don't muck around with, and children should be brought up ideally by a mother and a father who are married," voicing similar 'concerns' that his close ally US President George W. Bush expressed recently about gay marriage.

"I think the idea of the ACT having a bill of rights is ridiculous," Howard said.

"If you're going to have things like that, they should be done on a nationwide basis. This is political correctness inside the Labor Party parading itself for all the world to see."

The ACT which administers the country's capital Canberra and its 350,000 population, is not the first Australian jurisdiction to approve gay adoption, with two of the nation's six states - Western Australia and Tasmania - passing legislation to amend their adoption laws in the past two years.

While the federal government is led by the Howard's conservative Liberal Party, all of Australia's states and territories are run by the centre-left Labor party.

Howard also said on Monday that he expected to win this year's general election in the second half of the year and is confident of claiming his fourth term in office. As with the US Presidential elections this year, gay rights could also feature as a major issue in Australia's general elections.

Last Saturday, some 250,000 to 300,000 spectators lined Sydney's Oxford Street and surrounds as the city celebrated its 26th annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras which is arguably one of the largest gay events in the world.