The call was made during a parliamentary session attended by hundreds of women activists who had earlier staged a sit-in outside the legislature demanding equal voting rights for women in Kuwait, a close US ally which was until recently the Gulf region’s sole democracy.

Deputy Prime Minister, Shaikh Jaber Mubarak Al Hamad Al Sabah, ordered lawmakers to set a date as soon as possible to debate the amendment, which cabinet proposed last year.

At one stage, Kuwaiti women watching from the parliament’s gallery broke out into applause after a lawmaker backed the amendment.

But the parliament’s speaker ordered them and the rest of the gallery out following the outburst.

“We are the only country in the world that has a limping democracy,” activist Rania Al Saad, 30, outside the parliament building as some 700 protesters chanted “Women’s rights now.”

Debate on women being able to vote here gained momentum last month after the Prime Minister, Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, wrote in a rare newspaper column that it was “high time women get this right and practice it” because they were just as educated as other women in Arab and Muslim countries

Ten legislators had planned to refer the 1962 election law to the constitutional court in a bid to open the way for women to vote. But they withdrew their bid yesterday before the deputy premier’s decision. Lawmakers had also expected to vote on whether to hasten debate on the bill or not, but the choice was virtually made for them by Shaikh Jaber.