Gay campaigners began a weekend of protests last night against an international conference in Belfast which promotes the controversial claim that homosexuality can be "cured" using psychotherapy and prayer.

The conference is organised by Core Issues, an evangelical Christian group in Northern Ireland which promotes so-called "conversion therapy" and claims to have "saved" numerous homosexual Christians. The star speaker is the Rev Mario Bergner, a Chicago-based Anglican preacher and leading proponent of conversion therapy, who claims to have been cured of Aids and homosexuality through prayer.