The us Senate scuttled a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, handing a defeat to President George W. Bush yet assuring the issue renewed prominence in the fall campaign for the White House and control of Congress.

　　Forty-eight senators voted to advance the measure on Wednesday - 12 short of the 60 needed - and 50 voted to block it. Bush issued a statement saying he was "deeply disappointed" with the vote, but casting it as a temporary setback.

　　"Activist judges and local officials in some parts of the country are not letting up in their efforts to redefine marriage for the rest of America, and neither should defenders of traditional marriage flag in their efforts," he said.

　　Senate democratic leader Tom Daschle said there was no urgent need to amend the Constitution. "In South Dakota, we've never had a single same sex marriage and we won't have any," he said shortly before the vote. The amendment provided that marriage within the United States "shall consist only of a man and a woman." It also required that neither the US Constitution nor any state constitution "shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."

　　The senate acted as House Republicans began advancing legislation that would bar federal courts from ordering states to recognize same-sex marriages sanctioned in other states. The measure cleared committee on a vote of 21-13 and is expected on the House floor next week.

　　Polls show that while gay marriage is opposed by a strong majority of Americans, opinion is more evenly divided on the question of amending the Constitution. Republican strategists concede they must be careful in their handling of the issue, lest the party appear intolerant and offend moderate voters.

　　"I would argue that the future of our country hangs in the balance because the future of marriage hangs in the balance," said Senator Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, shortly before the vote. "Isn't that the ultimate homeland security, standing up and defending marriage?"

　　But critics called the amendment an effort to shift attention away from the economy and the war in Iraq. Echoing Kerry, Senator Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said.

　　(The Associated Press)