LONDON (Reuters):

Britain's leading cardinal said yesterday the Catholic Church might be forced to close down its adoption agencies if the government insisted they consider placing children with gay couples.

Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair urging him to exempt Catholic adoption agencies from a new anti-discrimination law or risk reducing the chances for some 4,000 children waiting to be adopted.

Serious difficulty

He said the Catholic Church in England and Wales, which he leads, would have "serious difficulty" adhering to the law.

The Equality Act, due to take effect in April, outlaws discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the basis of sexual orientation.

"We believe it would be unreasonable, unnecessary and unjust discrimination against Catholics for the government to insist that if they wish to continue to work with local authorities, Catholic adoption agencies must act against the teaching of the Church and their own consciences," the cardinal wrote.

He said it would be "an unnecessary tragedy if legislation forced the closure of these adoption services".

Blair's spokesman said the Prime Minister had yet to decide whether an exemption should be granted and would discuss it with members of his cabinet. "This is an issue with sensitivities on all sides," he said. "The key thing we have to remember in all of this is the interests of the children."

Homosexual Christian lobbyists accused the cardinal of bowing to pressure from the Vatican and making threats.

"The Vatican is raising the pressure here in its war against gay people," said Reverend Martin Reynolds, spokesman for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. "We are horrified that the Catholic Church appears to be holding the government to ransom."

The National Secular Society condemned the letter as "straightforward blackmail that risks undermining democracy".

"To give in to such blatant manipulation would open the door to never-ending demands from the churches for their doctrines to be given special privileges in law-making," Terry Sanderson, the society's president, said in a statement.

Constitutional Affairs Minister Charles Falconer said it was difficult to see how exemptions could be granted.

"If we take the view as a society that we should not discriminate against people who are homosexual, you cannot give exclusions to people on the grounds that their religion or their race says 'we don't agree with that'," he told BBC radio.

The 12 Catholic adoption agencies in England and Wales handle around one third of all voluntary sector adoptions.