MARRIAGES should last for only seven years before the couple decide to go their separate ways or sign up for an extension, a German MP has proposed.

The time limit would lead to fewer divorces, according to Gabriele Pauli, a candidate for the leadership of Bavaria's dominant conservative party CSU.

The "seven-year hitch" plan drew sharp criticism from party colleagues in Pope Benedict XVI's home region.

German MP Gabriele Pauli said seven-year marriage contracts would slash divorce rates.

"My proposal is for marriages to run out after seven years," Ms Pauli, a twice-divorced 50-year-old who leads the local administration in the town of Fuerth, said as she presented her leadership program in Munich.

"That means that, in future, people would in future enter marriages only on a time-limited basis, and would then actively say 'yes' to an extension."

She argued that, since a high proportion of marriages end in divorce and many people stay married only for fear of separation or for financial reasons, "perhaps one can live better outside marriage".

In the film The Seven Year Itch Marilyn Monroe plays a 22-year-old television bombshell who distracts a married man from his seven-year relationship, sending him into a spin about his own wife's behaviour.

The man becomes paranoid about being unfaithful while reading a book about how men have extramarital affairs after seven years.

The 1955 movie produced the most famous image of Monroe, as she "struggled" to hold down her dress while standing over a subway grate.

Ms Pauli conceded that "the fine points must still be cleared up" and said that "obviously, a lot stands against this".

Her novel suggestion on marriage appeared unlikely to win her new friends in the CSU.

The party for decades has dominated socially conservative, solidly Catholic Bavaria, where Pope Benedict was born and grew up.

[Via News.Com]

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