The first human cloned embryo could be implanted into a surrogate mother's womb before the end of the year, US fertility expert Panayiotis Zavos claimed this week. The attempt follows months of "practising" in the lab on hundreds of hybrid embryos made by fusing human cells with empty cow eggs, Zavos told a press conference in London. If the human pregnancy proceeds and goes to term, the baby will be a girl, he adds. "We've created the first human embryo for reproductive purposes," says Zavos, director of the Andrology Institute of America and associate director of the Kentucky Center for Reproductive Medicine and IVF. Zavos says that the frozen human embryo should have been implanted in July, but the surrogate mother developed complications which meant that the attempt had to be postponed. But it's still "on the agenda this year", he says. "The announcement has no scientific merit - its pure hype," says Bob Lanza, scientific director at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Massachusetts. Full article at New Scientist.