The Bush administration is working with the nation's largest charity, the Salvation Army, to make it easier for government-funded religious groups to engage in hiring discrimination against homosexuals, according to an internal Salvation Army document.

The White House has made a "firm commitment" to the Salvation Army to issue a regulation protecting such charities from state and city efforts to prevent discrimination against gays in hiring and domestic-partner benefits, according to the Salvation Army report. The Salvation Army, in turn, has agreed to use its clout to promote the administration's faith-based initiative, which seeks to direct more government funds to religious charities.

The matter stems from a national debate spurred by an increasing number of local jurisdictions that have adopted laws requiring religious groups such as the Salvation Army to adhere to laws barring discrimination against gays in hiring, job promotion and benefits.

According to the document, the administration is offering a federal regulation that would forbid states and localities from barring such discrimination when administering programs with federal funds.

The Salvation Army, a Christian social services organization with an extensive network of facilities to feed, clothe and shelter the poor, would be little affected in the short term by Bush's faith-based proposal. It already receives nearly $300 million annually in government money. But the report indicates the administration is eager to use the Salvation Army's clout to pass the legislation, offering the charity something it wants in return.

"It is important that The Army's support for the White House's activities occur simultaneously with efforts to achieve The Army's objectives," said the document. "The White House has already said that they are committed to move on The Army's objectives."

The White House said Monday that the organization's claim of a "firm commitment" overstated the case.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer added that faith-based groups already have the power under federal law to discriminate against gays in hiring. It is state and local laws that try to impose on groups to include homosexuals in their employment protections.

The report, dated May 1, defines the charity's objectives as making sure states and localities can't "impose the category of sexual orientation to the list of anti-discrimination protections" or mandate "equal benefits to domestic partnership" unless religious non-profits are exempt from such provisions.

George Hood, a senior official with the Salvation Army, said the group never discriminates in services, but on the question of hiring gays, "it really begins to chew away at the theological fabric of who we are."

Hood also said the group is backing the legislation primarily to get regulatory action from the administration. "It's the preservation of our employment practices that motivates us to support this," he said, noting that such practices are central to the group's "theological foundation."

The "charitable choice" provisions are at the heart of the controversy over Bush's religious charities initiative and raise the fundamental and thorny question of whether religious organizations can keep their long-held exemption from federal anti-discrimination laws when they receive government funds.

Under the 1996 welfare-reform law, the charitable choice provision allows religious organizations to compete for federal funding without impairing the charities' religious character, as long as the charities don't use federal funds for worship or proselytizing. Bush would extend the charitable choice provisions to other programs.