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Canada will change its law to allow homosexual marriage, joining Belgium and The Netherlands as the only countries where same-sex couples can legally wed, Prime Minister Jean Chretien said Tuesday.

Chretien said the new law would be drafted within weeks and submitted to the Supreme Court for review, then put to a Parliament vote. His Liberal Party has a commanding majority in the legislature.

The announcement means the government decided against appealing recent court rulings that declared the nation’s definition of marriage unconstitutional because it specified the union of a man and woman.