BRUSSELS: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban defended his country's law to ban the dissemination of material in schools deemed to promote homosexuality or gender change, and declared himself a fighter for LGBT rights.

"I am a fighter for their rights. I am a freedom fighter in the communist regime. Homosexuality was punished and I fought for their freedom and their rights. So I am defending the rights of the homosexual guys, but this law is not about that," Orban told reporters on arrival for a meeting of EU leaders, who are expected to raise the law that many EU capitals have criticised.