Portugal's conservative president announced Monday he is ratifying a law allowing gay marriage in the predominantly Catholic country.
The head of state's decision to permit the enactment of a bill passed by Parliament in January makes Portugal the sixth European country allowing same-sex couples to wed.
President Anibal Cavaco Silva said in a nationally televised address he regretted that the country's political parties had failed to reach a compromise during days of heated debate in Parliament four months ago.
Vetoing the bill would only send it back to Parliament where lawmakers would overturn his decision, he said, adding that the country needed to focus on overcoming an economic crisis that has increased unemployment and deepened poverty.
He said that, in ratifying the law, he was setting aside "personal convictions
The new law removes the previous legal stipulation that marriage is between two people of different sexes.
Portugal's Constitutional Court validated the bill's legality last month.
Like neighboring Spain, which introduced same-sex marriages four years ago, previous efforts in Portugal to introduce gay marriage ran into strong resistance from religious groups and conservative lawmakers.
Gay rights advocates have said they will continue to fight for gay couples' parental rights, including adoption, which are not included in the law.
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