Cuba will leave out of its new constitution changes that would have paved the way for legal same-sex marriage, despite majority support in local assemblies, a government official said Tuesday.

It was a surprising twist given public support nationwide for the reform and earlier remarks from lawmakers in the Americas' only one-party Communist regime.

The measure would have changed the definition of parties in a marriage from man and wife to "between two people."

But "the draft constitution will not define which parties enter into a marriage... So that is now out of constitutional reform discussions overall," Council of State secretary and drafting coordinator Homero Acosta was quoted as saying by state media.

The full draft constitution was put before neighborhood and workplace assemblies for debate between August and November. The marriage issue was the one that drew the greatest attention.