BRUSSELS - Gays and lesbians raised a global rallying cry Sunday to end discrimination in a world where some countries punish homosexual acts with death, as they marked an international day against homophobia.

The European Union spoke out in defence of fundamental freedoms based on sexual orientation or gender identity and voiced concerns about human rights violations.

"The European Union rejects and condemns any manifestation of homophobia as this phenomenon is a blatant violation of human dignity," the EU's Czech presidency said in a statement.

The 27-nation bloc condemned the use of the death penalty, torture and arbitrary arrest of homosexuals "wherever they occur," the statement said.

The global day against homophobia was set to be marked in 50 countries, according to the Canadian organisers of the event.

In Russia, the anti-discrimination campaign kicked off to a violent start on Saturday with the arrest of some 40 gay activists who had staged an unauthorized "Slavic Gay Pride" march in Moscow.

"What happened in Moscow must not be ignored by the international community and by foreign governments.... Everyone saw how human rights and the rights of sexual minorities are violated in Russia," said Russian gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev, who was released from jail on Sunday.

The creator of the GayRussia.ru website claimed he had been interrogated for six hours by officials from agencies including the FSB security service -- the successor to the Soviet-era KGB -- before being left overnight in a cold jail cell with broken windows.

"They treated us very badly. Over six hours, great psychological pressure was put on me and I was insulted in every sort of way," Alexeyev told AFP by telephone after he was released and fined for attending an unlawful demonstration.

According to Quebec's Emergence Foundation, which initiated the global day against homophobia, Russia is among countries where there have been violent attacks on gays, lesbians and transgender people, especially in clashes with ultra nationalists. Homosexuality was a crime in Russia until 1993.

"There are 192 countries in the UN, and half of them ban homosexuality, notably most countries in Africa, in Asia and Arab countries," said the foundation's president Laurent McCutcheon.

Five countries punish homosexual acts with death, the foundation said.

In Beirut, the gay rights organisation Helem (Dream) has organised a conference to call for repealing a law that imposes a one-year prison sentence on those who practice homosexual relations deemed "contrary to nature."

Ghassan Mukarem, a leader in the organisation, said they have been trying to repeal the law since 2003, but instead the Lebanese authorities have been more rigorous in cracking down on homosexuality.

The British government Sunday declared its commitment to fight prejudice and discrimination against gays around the world.

"Last December the UK was pleased to support the first UN statement which called for the decriminalisation of same sex relations across the globe... supported by 66 countries," George Malloch-Brown, Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister, said in a statement.

"We call upon those states that still have legislative measures in place criminalising same sex relations to remove them," he added.

McCutcheon said the anti-homophobia idea provides a rallying point for the world's supporters of gay and lesbian rights, and hoped one day it would be endorsed by the United Nations.

May 17 was chosen because it was on that date in 1990 that the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.