UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly decided on Tuesday to put off negotiations for a year on a treaty banning human cloning that the Bush administration wants to extend to research on stem cells.

All 191 UN members agree on a treaty that would prohibit cloning of human beings. But nations are divided about whether to allow cloning human embryos for stem cell or other research, known as “therapeutic” cloning.

The assembly’s legal committee, by a one-vote margin, last month said a treaty should not be negotiated for two years, thereby virtually derailing the measure. Some 66 scientific academies around the world support therapeutic cloning.

But the two sides compromised on Tuesday in what a US envoy said was the best deal Washington could get. However, several diplomats said a year was not enough to bridge differences.

“The 200 dollars a minute spent on the debate next year is not going to take us forward,” said one European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Tuesday’s decision, reached without a vote, puts the issue of banning cloning on the assembly’s next agenda, which begin in September next year.

Costa Rica led the arguments and drafted a resolution for the United States and its 60 supporters of a total ban. Among their backers are some Latin American and European Catholic nations, such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland, who portray “therapeutic” cloning as the taking of human lives.

Another 30 nations, led by Britain and Belgium and including France, Japan and South Africa, are just as adamant that a world ban on research was out of the question.—Reuters