Chinese researchers have claimed that Genghis Khan's code of laws "probably" contains the earliest ban on male homosexuality, AP reports.

Experts at the Research Institute of Ancient Mongolian Laws and Sociology in Inner Mongolia reassembled Khan's code - lost 600 years ago - from "historical texts, including Marco Polo's travelogue".

According to news agency Xinhua, article 48 stated bluntly that chaps who "committed sodomy shall be put to death". Other capital offences included "damaging grassland with unauthorized excavations or starting fires".

Khan was not, however, motivated by moral outrage, but rather the desire to increase the Mongolian population (estimated at 1.5 million) to challenge the central Chinese Song Dynasty, which boasted 100 million individuals - presumably strictly heterosexual to a man. ®

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