November 7, 2003	Friday	Ramazan 11, 1424

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 6: The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution sponsored by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) delaying drafting of a treaty on human cloning until 2005 .

The adoption of the resolution by a razor thin margin 80 to 79, with 15 abstentions, is a setback for the Bush administration which wanted a treaty banning human cloning altogether.

The OIC resolution sponsored by Iran put a damper on the plans of the ultra conservatives within the Republican Party who wanted such a treaty now.

The matter has been pending in the 191-nation assembly since 2001, when France and Germany asked the United Nations to quickly draft a treaty banning human cloning.

But the Bush administration, with backing from the US anti-abortion movement, then shattered that consensus by ruling out any treaty unless it banned both “therapeutic” cloning, in which human cells are cloned for medical research aims, and the cloning of a human.