LONDON (Reuters) - The government has confirmed plans to give legal recognition to gay partnerships, a move bringing it into line with most other EU members.
Nine other countries in the European Union already have some provision for recognising those in committed same-sex partnerships.
Under the Civil Partnership Bill, same-sex couples will be allowed to make a legal commitment to each other at a formal ceremony and have similar rights on pensions and property to heterosexual partners.
"It opens the way to respect, recognition and justice for those who have been denied it for too long," minister for women and equality Jacqui Smith said on Wednesday.
"Same-sex couples often face a range of unnecessary problems in their everyday lives because of a lack of legal recognition of their relationships."
In the United States, the fight over gay marriage has become an election-year issue, with President George W. Bush backing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex marriage after officials in various states, claiming ambiguity in the law, began marrying gay couples.
The British bill gives full recognition for the purposes of life assurance, the right to take over tenancy rights and pension benefits from a partner and an ability to gain parental responsibility for their civil partner's children.
Officials say it is intended to be passed into law by the end of the year.
Gay campaigners welcomed the move, with some qualifications.
"This is absolutely the most significant event in the history of gay rights in Britain. I never thought this would happen in my lifetime," Terry Sanderson of the Gay Times, Europe's biggest gay publication, told Reuters.
"My only regret is that they didn't offer us marriage and complete equality," he said.
Government officials said the Bill did not use the term "gay marriage" but that civil partnerships were designed to be as close to a marriage contract as possible.
The Conservatives have also moved to court the gay community, with a general election expected in the first half of 2005.
Senior Conservatives, anxious to shake off their anti-gay image, met homosexual rights campaigners this week to hear accounts of discrimination against gay and lesbians.