Prison authorities in Saudi Arabia have begun administering 7,000 lashes to each of two men convicted of committing "homosexual acts", a local newspaper reported yesterday.

The Okaz newspaper says that the sentence was being meted out in "phases" and was being conducted in a public square in the southwestern city of Al-Bahah.

Neither man has been named.

The floggings began on Tuesday. The men were dragged into the square, their shirts removed and they where whipped. They were then returned to prison. The process was repeated on Wednesday and will continue daily until all 7,000 lashes have been administered.

Shari'a law, as interpreted and enforced in Saudi Arabia, allows sentences ranging from imprisonment and flogging to death for “deviant sexual behaviour.”

In the past several years there have been a number of reported mass arrests at "gay weddings" in various parts of the country, but little official information has been released on the outcomes of trials.

Last year 20 men were arrested at what officials say was a "gay wedding" in the town of Jizan. Their fate is unknown.

In April, 2005,35 men were sentenced by a Saudi court to be flogged after they attended what was described as a “gay wedding”.

A month earlier a gay couple was beaded in a public execution in the northern town of Arar, near the Iraq border. The pair had been convicted of killing a blackmailer. If they had been exposed as gay they could have been executed anyway.

In 2004 Saudi police raided another event described as a gay wedding party for two African men from Chad at a hotel in the holy city of Medina. Around 50 people were arrested.