Benefits for gay spouses of United Nations employees will no longer be determined by the staffers' home countries' laws on same-sex unions, meaning the international organization will apply the same rules to all legally married couples, the Associated Press reported.

The decision is the result of a vote in the U.N. General Assembly's budget committee, which approved Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's plan to extend family benefits to all staffers over opposition from Russia and 43 other countries.

Tuesday's vote was critical because the committee will have to approve additional funding to pay for the new benefits, the AP noted. Ban has been a vocal supporter of gay rights, and U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told the news service that the secretary-general viewed the decision as an affirmation of his authority under the U.N. Charter.

The budget panel defeated a Russian-sponsored resolution that called for Ban's plan to be dropped; Moscow's proposal received support from many Arab and Muslim countries as well as China, India and Zimbabwe.

A Saudi diplomat told the U.N. committee cited the country's local customs as the basis for its vote, according to the Guardian.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not support the expansion of benefits for same-sex couples because Saudi Arabia believes these relationships are morally unacceptable," the unidentified representative said.

Eighty countries, including the United States and European Union member states, opposed the Russian initiative, the AP noted.; 37 nations abstained, and 33 did not vote.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power was among diplomats who had "lobbied hard" for Ban's prerogatives and underlined that the United States planned to defend the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender U.N. staffers.

"We must speak plainly about what Russia tried to do today: diminish the authority of the U.N. secretary-general and export to the (United Nations) its domestic hostility to LGBT rights," Power said.

The U.S. diplomat said Moscow's contention that "the administrative decision will impose a new standard on member states" was a pretext that did not hold true, the Guardian noted.

Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Petr Iliichev, however, said that the current regulations should stand as "an example of how the United Nations respects cultural differences."