Hong Kong has refused to allow British nationals that live there to observe a British law on gay partnerships, Associated Press has reported.

|TOP|Under the new Civil Partnerships Act that was introduced in Britain at the end of 2005, homosexual couples would be allowed to enter into civil unions at British diplomatic offices in foreign countries, just as long as those countries did not object to it.

Hundreds of British nationals currently reside in Hong Kong, and currently the Hong Kong authorities have blocked any such move to allow gays to enter civil partnerships in the British diplomatic offices.

A spokeswoman from the consulate has officially stated that Hong Kong is blocking its local residents from entering into same-sex civil unions at the British consulate.

In addition, a Hong Kong official has said that locals are being consulted on the need for legislation to ban homophobic behaviour, according to AP. The Hong Kong government was been clear that it does not want to be seen as taking sides in the issue and that discussions were still ongoing.

At the beginning of the month, the Irish Prime Minister stated that Ireland also would soon look to legalise civil partnerships for gay couples. Bertie Ahern promised that he would soon open new offices for the country’s main gay rights groups.

|AD|The issue has been the centre of great controversy in the UK over the past year also. Previously the Church of England’s House of Bishops released a statement that caused heated debate throughout the religious spectrum in England.

One of the most senior bishops in the Church of England even issued a strong condemnation of the statement on Civil Partnerships, calling it “unbiblical”.

The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, rebuked the statement for undermining traditional teaching on marriage in a letter written to clergy in his diocese.

The Bishop of Rochester continued his attack on the Church of England’s leadership of the civil partnership controversy, criticising the permission it gave to the Government to change church legislation by order, so that the term ‘civil partner’ was automatically added wherever the term ‘spouse’ appeared.

The Evangelical Council has warned of the negative consequences of the Civil Partnerships Act following the hundreds of gay civil partnership ceremonies that took place up and down the country in December 2005.

The Chairman of the Church of England Evangelical Council, the Rev. Dr. Richard Turnbull, has also previously warned Christians in particular of the need to uphold the unique position of marriage between one man and one woman.

"We recognise, of course, the need for fair and equal treatment before the law for all people,” he said. “However, Christians need to be very concerned indeed at the assertion of moral equivalence between marriage and civil partnerships. They are not of equal moral standing.”

He added that Christians have a unique role to teach others about the sanctity of the traditional family.

Rev. Turnbull said: “Christians must be clear, while acting with sensitivity and care, to assert the Christian teaching that celibate singleness or monogamous marriage are the ways in which God has provided for the best moral family framework for society. We depart from that at our peril both as a society and indeed as a church."

Irish PM Ahern has commented that it would be more difficult to legalise gay marriage in Ireland than it had been in the UK. Ireland's constitution has a clause requiring the predominantly Roman Catholic state to protect the institution of marriage, whereas the UK, which includes neighbouring Northern Ireland, has no written constitution.