US: President George Bush has declared his backing for a ban on gay marriage in what sceptics say is part of a broad campaign to win back disillusioned conservatives and divert attention from the Iraq war.
Mr Bush met a group of conservative activists yesterday to pledge his support for their proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.
He also devoted the weekend's radio address to the nation to the issue.
"Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society," the president said. "Government, by recognising and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all."
The Federal Marriage Protection Act is intended as a response to a 2004 decision by the Massachusetts supreme court and a similar ruling expected in Washington state, to permit same-sex weddings. However it stands no chance of winning the two-thirds vote it requires in the senate and house of representatives, let alone ratification by three-quarters of the states.
Democrats derided the measure as a distraction from more serious problems and a desperate effort to stir up socially divisive issues to stave off defeat in November.
"A vote for this amendment is a vote for bigotry, pure and simple," Senator Edward Kennedy, the party's leading voice on social issues, said yesterday.