BEIRUT: Activists urged President Michel Sleiman Saturday to help speed up the work of a parliamentary committee studying a draft personal status law.

Sleiman met with a delegation from the National Campaign for a Lebanese Personal Status Law who, according to his office, handed him a copy of the draft law which is currently in Parliament.

They urged him to support accelerating the process of studying the draft law at the parliamentary committee.

The proposed law, referred to parliamentary committees over two years ago, was drafted by civil rights activists and addresses the issue of civil marriage, adoption and inheritance outside religious courts.

Sleiman has voiced support for the civil status law, which would pave the way for the legalization of civil marriage in the country.

Talk of the possibility of legalizing civil nuptials in Lebanon surfaced after Sleiman argued that such a move would abolish sectarianism in the country.

His remarks came days after Kholoud Sukkariyeh and Nidal Darwish announced that they were in the final stages of registering the first civil marriage in Lebanon.

Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel are looking into the legality of the nuptials.

Activists insists that Decree 60 (L. R.) of 1936 allows Lebanese who do not belong to a particular sect to marry out of religious institutions as it recognizes the right of sects to manage the personal status laws of its adherents.