Ottawa, June 28: The Canadian House of Commons voted yesterday to guarantee full marriage rights to same-sex couples, reaffirming Canada’s sharp difference with the US over the issue of gay rights and promising an alternative destination for American gay men and lesbians to be married.

The legislation, which opponents acknowledge will easily pass the Senate and which has the support of the government, will make Canada only the third country ? after Belgium and the Netherlands ? to give national recognition to gay marriages.

“The big peaceable kingdom on the US border will demonstrate that it is absolutely possible for religious freedom to co-exist with the end of discrimination against gay and lesbian people,” said Alex Munter, a gay rights advocate who gathered with other supporters at Parliament Hall in Ottawa to watch the vote. “Many couples already come from America to get married, and thousands of more will come.”

American couples have been wed here since lower courts began to legalise same-sex marriages in some provinces in 2003. The marriage in Ottawa this month of a gay American couple from the popular television show Amazing Race is the latest high-profile example.

“We are the only jurisdiction in the world that allows marriage without a residency requirement,” noted R. Douglas Elliott, a Toronto lawyer and president of the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association. “Equal marriage is going to become Canada’s leading export.”

Although marriages legally performed in another country are traditionally accepted in the US, the question of whether gay marriages will be recognised in states that have banned same-sex unions is likely to be the subject of court battles.

The Canadian legislation, which passed the Commons 158 to 133, follows a steady march of court decisions that have already ruled gay marriage legal in eight of 10 Canadian provinces and one territory. In December, the Canadian Supreme Court pointed the way to national legislation by ruling that gay marriage conforms to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

But unlike in the US, where some legislators and President Bush have actively opposed same-sex marriage, the Canadian Parliament acted to establish a uniform national law. Despite opposition from church leaders and politicians in several provinces, the move is supported by a majority of the Canadian public.