BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (AP) – The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a lesbian couple’s marriage should be recognised under South African law in a major step toward legalising same-sex weddings here.

But the court suspended its decision for two years to give the government time to amend legislation accordingly.

Marie Fourie and Cecelia Bonthuys, a couple from Pretoria, brought the application after the Pretoria High Court refused to recognise their October 2002 wedding on the basis of the common law definition of marriage as a union between a man and woman.

In a majority decision, the Supreme Court declared yesterday that the definition should be extended to include same-sex partners. Judge Edwin Cameron said the law should read: “Marriage is the union of two persons to the exclusion of all others for life,” the South African Press Association reported.

There was no immediate comment from the government, which opposed the application.

South Africa recognised the rights of gay people in the constitution adopted after apartheid ended in 1994, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.