Uganda’s president has refused to sign into law a harsh new bill against homosexuality that prescribes the death penalty in some cases, requesting that it should be amended to recognise “rehabilitation”.

Yoweri Museveni’s decision was announced late on Thursday after a meeting of lawmakers in his ruling party, almost all of whom support the bill approved by lawmakers last month.

The meeting resolved to return the bill to the national assembly “with proposals for its improvement,” a statement said.

A press release from the National Resistance Movement, Mr Museveni’s political party, said the president is not opposed to the punishments put forward in the bill but proposes “a provision for amnesty” for those who publicly declare their homosexuality “as long as he does not act”.

Mr Museveni condemned homosexuality during a meeting in the capital, Kampala, on Thursday, charging that “Europe is lost. So they also want us to be lost,” according to footage released by public broadcaster UBC.

Mr Museveni also praised lawmakers for approving the bill, which has drawn international condemnation.

“I congratulate you for that strong stand,” he said in the released video. “It is good that you rejected the pressure from the imperialists. And this is what I told them. Whenever they come to me I say, ‘you, please shut up’.”

Homosexuality is already illegal in the East African country under a colonial-era law criminalising sex acts “against the order of nature”. The punishment for that offence is life imprisonment.

Mr Museveni is under pressure from the international community to veto the bill, which needs his signature to become law. The US has warned of economic consequences if the legislation is enacted. A group of UN experts has described the bill, if enacted, as “an egregious violation of human rights”.

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