Sweden may allow homosexuals to wed in the Lutheran Church as of May 2009 if parliament adopts legislation due to be presented shortly, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said on Wednesday.

`Sweden could have a gender neutral marriage law by May 1, 2009,` Reinfeldt told Swedish Radio.

While heterosexuals in Sweden can choose to marry in either a civil ceremony or a church ceremony, homosexuals are only allowed to register their partnerships in a civil ceremony.

Civil unions granting gays and lesbians the same legal status as married couples have been allowed in Sweden since 1995.

If the new legislation is adopted, Sweden, already a pioneer in giving same-sex couples the right to adopt children, would become the first country in the world to allow gays to marry within a major church.

The Lutheran Church, which was separated from the state in 2000, has since January 2007 offered gays a religious blessing of their union. It has previously said it wants the word `marriage` reserved for heterosexual unions.

Pastors who do not want to perform a gay wedding ceremony may however have the right to refuse, something gay rights` activists have criticised.

In 2007, 74 percent of Swedes were members of the Lutheran Church.

Sweden`s four-party centre-right government has been split on the issue, with the junior partner Christian Democrats also opposed to the use of the word `marriage` for homosexual unions.

However the three other parties, the conservative Moderates, the Liberals and the Centre Party, are in favour of a gender neutral law that eliminates the current reference to marriage as something between a man and a woman.

The opposition Social Democrats, the country`s biggest party, also support such a law, and together the parties would garner enough support to adopt the legislation in parliament.

The issue has been a tricky one for Reinfeldt and the leader of the Christian Democrats, Goeran Haegglund.

`The coalition government has agreed that we will present a basic marriage bill to parliament. The three parties in favour of a gender neutral marriage law will then present an accompanying motion seeking to have such a law in place by May 1, 2009,` Reinfeldt said.

Haegglund said he was disappointed the coalition had failed to reach a compromise, telling news agency TT `there should have been a way to find a joint agreement.`