Washington, Feb. 21 (Reuters): Hours after a second Superior Court judge refused to stop same-sex weddings in San Francisco, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told the state’s attorney general yesterday to take “immediate steps” to stop the gay marriages, the Los Angeles Times reported.

According to a report published on the newspaper’s web site, Schwarzenegger sent a letter to attorney general Bill Lockyer saying, because the city’s actions “are directly contrary to state law and present an imminent risk to civil order, I hereby direct you to take immediate steps to obtain a definite judicial resolution of this controversy.”

Reuters was not able to obtain a copy of the letter late yesterday.

In a speech to California’s state Republican Party convention, Schwarzenegger said he asked the attorney general to move as quickly as possible on the issue of gay marriages. “It’s time for the city of San Francisco to start respecting state law,” he added. In 2000, California voters passed a referendum known as Proposition 22, which declared marriage could only be between a man and woman.

But thousands of gay couples have been married at City Hall after San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom lifted a ban on gay marriages last week.