US VICE-PRESIDENT Joe Biden has said he is “absolutely comfortable” with gay marriage, becoming the country’s highest-ranking politician to do so.

Biden noted he does not set the Obama administration’s policy on same-sex marriage. But he said on a personal level he believed all couples whether hetero- or homosexual should be entitled to the same rights.

He told NBC’s Meet The Press:

I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.

According to Politico, Biden also expressed his belief that support for gay marriage was growing in the US. He said:

The good news is that as more and more Americans become to understand what this is all about is a simple proposition.  Who do you love?  And will you be loyal to the person you love?

Obama himself has remained cagey about his position on the issue, saying only that his views are “evolving”.

The LA Times reports that he is now under pressure to declare support for same-sex marriage as part of the official Democratic platform ahead of his re-election battle this year.

More: Jerry Buttimer: ‘Being gay is not all of what I am’>