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ROME, April 24 (Reuters) - An Italian fertility specialist who has said he intends to create the world's first human clone told a television show on Wednesday three women were pregnant.

Earlier this month a Middle East newspaper whipped up a storm of controversy by quoting Severino Antinori as saying that a woman in his programme was pregnant, but did not provide details making it clear whether it was the result of cloning.

The Italian doctor has refused to confirm or deny the story, but told Italy state television on Wednesday that three cloned pregnancies existed in the world at the moment.

"There are three pregnancies," Antinori said in response to the question of how many cloned pregnancies existed.

He said two of the three pregnancies were developing in Russia and one in an "Islamic state" and that they were six to nine weeks along.

Antinori denied he was directly involved in any of the pregnancies and did not explain, confirm or deny the quotes attributed to him in the April 3 report by the United Arab Emirates English-language newspaper Gulf News.

Scientists greeted the Gulf News report with scepticism and condemnation, citing technical difficulties that would have to be overcome to create a human clone and saying it would be dangerous to embark on such a programme without proper guidelines and regulation.

Human reproductive cloning, which could theoretically be used to create a new person, is banned in many countries and while Italy's new centre-right government has not made any mention of cloning since winning a general election in May, it is also likely to support such a ban.

Antinori's declared intentions led the United Nations to set up a panel last year aimed at drafting an international treaty to ban the cloning of human beings.

The treaty drafting process is expected to take years, but Antinori's reported announcement is likely to give more urgency to the debate, which began in February.

Antinori achieved fame a few years ago by helping a 62-year-old woman become pregnant with a donated egg.

  04/23/02 20:48 ET


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An Italian fertility specialist who has said he intends to create the world's first human clone told a television show on Wednesday three women were pregnant.