MOSCOW • Russia on Tuesday said the Disney film, Beauty And The Beast, will be released with an adults-only rating after an ultra- conservative lawmaker sought its ban over a "gay moment".

A spokesman for the culture ministry said the film, which stars Dan Stevens and Emma Watson, "is coming out with a 16+ age certificate", RIA Novosti news agency reported. It means children under the age of 16 will not be allowed to watch it.

The film's director Bill Condon has revealed that it contains Disney's "first exclusively gay moment", although some critics have said this was less than overwhelming.

Disney had previously announced the film as a 6+ in its promotional campaign for Russia, where it is due to come out on March 16.

Walt Disney Company Russia & CIS confirmed the 16+ age rating in a statement.

National lawmaker Vitaly Milonov last Saturday asked Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky to check the film for breaches of a controversial law that bans "gay propaganda" to minors. Mr Milonov was one of the chief architects of the law that President Vladimir Putin signed in 2013 despite a storm of international condemnation.

Russia decriminalised homosexuality in 1993 and only in 1999 lifted its classification as a mental illness.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE