Finland has begun work on legalising same-sex marriage and adoption by married same-sex couples.
Justice Minister Tuija Brax said Finland's constitution bans discrimination based on gender and that public opinion supports letting gay couples marry.
The law should be in place by 2012.
That will leave Denmark as the only Nordic country without same-sex marriage. Ironically, in 1989, Denmark was the first nation in the world to enact a registered-partnership law.
It granted gay couples 99 percent of the rights and obligations of marriage and became a model for numerous other nations.
Full same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Mexico City, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C.