Elton John will not be able to adopt a 14-month-old Ukrainian child because he is too old and isn't traditionally married, Ukraine's minister for family affairs said on September 14, 2009.

Elton toured a hospital for HIV-infected children in eastern Ukraine on September 12, 2009 as part of a charity project and said that he and his male partner David Furnish wanted to adopt an HIV-infected boy named Lev. But the country's Family, Youth and Sports Minister Yuriy Pavlenko told The Associated Press that adoptive parents must be married and Ukraine does not recognize homosexual unions as marriage.

Elton and David, his longtime partner, tied the knot in 2005 in one of the first legalized civil unions in the United Kingdom. Pavlenko also said Elton was too old. The singer is 62 and Ukrainian law requires a parent to be no more than 45 years older than an adopted child.

"Foreign citizens who are single have no right to adopt children ... and the age difference between the adopter and the child cannot be more than 45 years," Pavlenko said. "The law is the same for everybody: for a president, for a minister, for Elton John." Pavlenko said Ukraine was grateful for Elton's charity work and expressed hope that his desire to adopt Lev would spur the domestic adoption of more children with health problems, which is still rare in Ukraine.

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