**Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has distanced himself from a bill proposing execution for some gay people.**He stressed that the MP who proposed the bill, who is a member of the ruling party, did so as an individual and was not following government policy.
Mr Museveni, who admitted coming under international pressure, said the bill was now a “foreign policy issue” and would be discussed by the cabinet.
The proposals have caused a storm of criticism across the world.
Sweden has threatened to cut aid and other countries have contacted Mr Museveni directly to put their objections.
High-level contacts
In his first public comments on the issue, Mr Museveni told a meeting of ruling party members their handling of the bill “must take into account our foreign policy interests”.
“Mrs Clinton rang me. What was she talking about Gays”
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni
Fear over gay death-penalty plans
“The prime minister of Canada came to see me and what was he talking about Gays,” he said.
"[UK] Prime Minister Gordon Brown came to see me and what was he talking about Gays.
“Mrs Clinton [the US state secretary] rang me. What was she talking about Gays.”
He said the cabinet would be talking to Mr Bahati about his bill and would thrash out the government’s position on it.
Homosexual acts are already punishable by up to 14 years in jail in Uganda.
David Bahati’s private member’s bill, which had been expected to gain wide support the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), would raise that penalty to life in prison.
It also proposes the death penalty for a new offence of “aggravated homosexuality” - defined as when one of the participants is a minor, HIV-positive or a “serial offender”.