Belgium passes gay adoption law

The lower house had backed the bill in December

The Belgian parliament has voted to grant homosexual couples the right to adopt children.

Senators backed the bill by 34 votes to 33, with two abstentions.

Elsewhere in Europe, gay couples are allowed to adopt children in the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, as well as in England and Wales.

Gay couples won the right to marry in Belgium in June 2003. The new law grants them the same adoption rights as heterosexual couples.

In December 2005, the lower house of parliament voted 77-62 in favour of the measure.

In Germany and Denmark, homosexual adoption is limited to the partners' biological children.