OSLO, (AFP) - Norwegian homosexuals are set to launch their own soda brand, "Homo light", at an upcoming gastronomic festival, in the hope that it will help promote tolerance, one of the authors of the project said yesterday.

"The goal is not for us to make money but to make us more visible and accepted," Oeystein Mauritzen told AFP.

Pear-flavored and pink, "Homo Light" will go on sale as a one-time offer at a stand at a gastronomic festival in the southwestern town of Stavanger between July 27 and 30.

Along with the soda, which will be sold in half-litre (about a pint) bottles for 20 kroner (three dollars, 2.50 euros), the group will sell rainbow-coloured pasta salads.

Norway, which has allowed homosexuals to form marriage-like partnerships since 1993, is one of the world's most liberal countries when it comes to gay rights.

The current coalition government ironically combines Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, a Lutheran minister of the Christian Democratic Party who has come out against the partnership law, and openly gay Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss of the Conservative Party.

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