British P.M. urges change in succession

British Prime Minister David Cameron has begun urging the heads of Commonwealth governments to make the succession for the throne gender neutral. Cameron wrote his counterparts last month, his office said Wednesday. His push was made in advance of the Commonwealth summit, scheduled for this month in Perth, Australia. "We espouse gender equality in all other aspects of life and it is an anomaly that in the rules relating to the highest public office we continue to enshrine male superiority," Cameron said in his letter. Cameron would also like to drop a legal ban in effect since 1703 on the monarch being married to a Catholic. The monarch, as head of the Church of England, would still have to be a member of that church. "This rule is a historical anomaly -- it does not, for example, bar those who marry spouses of other faiths -- and we do not think it can continue to be justified," the prime minister said. Cameron also suggested dropping another 18th-century anachronism that requires all descendants of King George II to get royal permission if they want to marry before age 25. Prince William is 10 generations removed from George II and thousands of royal descendants may have innocently broken the law. The British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is head of the Commonwealth and the nominal head of state in many of its member countries, complicating changes in the royal succession.