OSLO, Norway, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende said the country will not ban circumcisions on boys under 18 despite legislation the health minister has proposed.

Health Minister Brent Hoie had promised to have a proposal on the table next spring banning the procedure -- when not medically necessary -- on boys less than 18 years of age.


The ban would include ritual circumcision practiced by Jews and Muslims.

"With good information about risk, pain and lack of health benefits of the intervention, I think parents from minorities would voluntarily abstain from circumcising children," children's ombudswoman Anne Lindboe said.

But Brende said the ban won't happen, TheLocal.no reported Tuesday.

"The Norwegian government recognizes the importance of ritual male circumcision for the Jewish community in Norway," Brende wrote in a letter to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a global Jewish human rights organization. "It will not propose a ban on ritual circumcision."