An American scientist who says he will begin experiments in human cloning has been attacked as "unscrupulous".

The Chicago-based physicist Richard Seed has said he is "90% complete" in setting up a team of experts who would try to help infertile couples by attempting to clone humans.

Dr Seed has been attacked by fertility specialists

But his announcement has prompted immediate criticism.

President Clinton's top adviser on bio-ethics has said Dr Seed should be stopped from attempting any such experiment and has described his intentions as morally inappropriate.

A San Francisco geneticist, Roger Penderson, said: "I think that anybody who would propose to do this is preying on the uninformed and that's unscrupulous."

The White House Press Secretary, Mike McCurry, has also rejected Dr Seed's claims.

Dr Seed says no government will stop his experiments (3'07")

"I think the scientific community should make it clear to Dr Seed that he has elected to be irresponsible, unethical and unprofessional," he said.

But Dr Seed has defended himself.

"I can't really answer the critics who think it's a bad idea," he said.

"They'll never be persuaded. As far as I'm concerned, they have rather small minds and a rather small view of the world."

Debate continues

His initiative has renewed public debate following the successful cloning of a sheep by scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland last year.

It prompted President Clinton to propose a five-year ban on any research on human cloning.

Dr Patrick Dixon, an international lecturuer on global trends, gives evidence on the public demand for cloning (Dur: 1'21")

Dr Seed says he has identified four women in the Chicago area who are willing to donate unfertilised eggs.

If successful he wants to offer a similar service in up to 20 other clinics across America.

His technique involves taking an unfertilised egg from the ovary. The genetic material, or DNA, is extracted and replaced with the nucleus of an adult human cell.

The egg is then implanted in the woman's womb and the resulting embryo is a clone of the person who donated the human cell nucleus.

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