A judge in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires has given a homosexual couple permission to get married.

In a statement posted on a website the two men say the ruling could allow them to become the first gay couple in Latin America to get the right to marry. The ruling can still be overturned by the city authorities. Buenos Aires and other Argentinian cities recognise civil unions for same sex couples. Same sex civil unions are also allowed in a number of cities in Uruguay and Mexico. But these civil unions grant gay couples some but not all the rights of married couples.