WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) believes a key Senate ally under fire for controversial remarks about gays is "an inclusive man," and the president has confidence in his leadership, the White House said.

Republican Senator Rick Santorum, who holds his party's third-highest post in the chamber, has sparked a political controversy by likening homosexuality to adultery and incest in comments about a US Supreme Court case over an anti-sodomy law.

"The president believes that the senator is an inclusive man," said Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites). "The president has confidence in Senator Santorum and thinks he's doing a good job as senator -- including in his leadership post."

Santorum's widely published remarks stated that "if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.

"All of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family," Santorum said.

Santorum has since said his comments were "misconstrued."

The issue has political resonance because Republican Senator Trent Lott lost his majority leader post after remarks in which he suggested the United States would be better off if a segregationist had won the 1948 White House race.

The Human Rights Campaign, a gay group, suggested Bush's support of Santorum showed a double standard because the president had publicly criticized Lott for his comments.

"The real question before us right now is whether the president actually supports inclusion and equality, or if it is simply something that is convenient from time to time," said Elizabeth Birch, the group's executive director.