Port Louis — Lesotho's government aims to give women full legal equality and property rights within a year in one of the handful of African states where women remain legally inferior to men.

Women in the mountainous kingdom - one of the world's poorest countries and entirely circled by South Africa - can vote, work and hold public office, but they are legally minors, subordinate to their husbands or fathers. "We are trying to change all the laws so that women have equal rights," Assistant Minister of Gender, Youth, Sports and Recreation Hlonepho Nt'sekhe told Reuters by telephone. "I think we can say this will happen in a year or so."

Women have legal equality in most African states, although in reality many men still view them as inferior. Advocacy groups say legislative change in Lesotho is important and will affect women's daily lives. Under its current legislation, a widow has virtually no right to family property after the death of her husband, and often loses it to male relatives. After the man's death, the wife becomes subordinate to her eldest son. "It's important that women have recourse to justice," said researcher Nadira Omarjee at South Africa based charity People Opposing Women Abuse.

Some women say they have avoided marriage simply to retain control over their lives. Unmarried women can open bank accounts and carry out business, but once they marry they are expected to transfer responsibility to their spouses.

"Once you are married you can't do anything without final authority from your husband," said Millie Konote, who works on a forestry project in Lesotho's highlands. She has also avoided marriage. Women dominate Lesotho's textile industry and carry out most of the farming, while many men are unemployed after massive job cuts at mines in neighbouring South Africa. The kingdom's women are often better educated than the men, who as boys are often taken out of school for the traditional task of minding cattle.

But women's groups and aid agencies say their legal inferiority makes domestic violence tolerated, and that their status makes them less able to take control of their sex lives and demand the use of condoms - crucial in a country where 30 percent of the population are HIV positive.