THE HAGUE, 29/06/07 - The Lower House wants same-sex couples to be allowed to adopt children from abroad. A proposed bill to this effect can count on broad majority support.

Homosexual couples - two women or two men - can already adopt children in the Netherlands. The House wants this also permitted for children from abroad. The 'donor country' will however still have to give permission.

Only the small orthodox Christian parties SGP and ChristenUnie voted against the bill, for reasons of principle. The Christian democrats (CDA), which voted several years ago against same-sex marriages, did back the proposal.

SGP MP Kees van der Staaij criticised what he sees as the runaway ideology that everything and everyone is always and in all cases equal. Having children is, like marriage, reserved for man and woman, in his view.