Kids of three and five get engaged

Their engagement in Syria after a whirlwind holiday romance could set an unenviable world record.

Khalid, the would-be groom, is five. Hala, his fiancee, is three. Their parents, astonishingly, are not only taking the betrothal seriously - they even arranged the ceremony and bought the rings which the 'couple' exchanged as if they were adults.

They say the playschool-aged pair consented to the match and are acting of their own free will, although they will not wed for another ten years.

"We know Khalid or Hala might change their mind in the future, but at this stage they are very happy and talk to each other every day," the boy's father, Juma, said.

The boy is said to have met and fallen in love with Hala while he was holidaying with his parents in Lattakia, on Syria's Mediterranean coast. Khalid was supposedly lovesick on his return home to Homs - a town about 100 miles north of Damascus, the Syrian capital - and refused to go back to his nursery unless Hala joined him.

Instead of treating it as a case of premature puppy love or nursery role-playing, his parents called Hala's mother to seek her opinion. "She said her daughter had developed similar symptoms of loneliness and the family would be very happy to see them engaged," Juma said. "The young bride seems very genuine."