QUICK TAKES - Sept. 15, 2009

Elton John won’t be able to adopt a 14-month-old HIV-positive child from Ukraine because the pop star is too old and isn’t married, the government said Monday.

Adoption and gay rights advocates expressed regret about the determination by Family, Youth and Sports Minister Yuriy Pavlenko, while a children’s charity had reservations about John’s weekend announcement that he and his male partner, David Furnish, wanted to adopt the boy.

John announced his desire after meeting the boy, named Lev, while touring an orphanage Saturday as part of an anti-AIDS charity project.

But the singer is 62 and Ukrainian law requires a parent to be no more than 45 years older than an adopted child. And Pavlenko said Ukraine does not recognize gay unions as marriage.