UNITED NATIONS -- The White House has reportedly suspended its bid for a U.N. ban on human cloning, avoiding what was shaping up to be a bruising fight.
President Bush had made the ban a foreign policy priority, issuing a personal appeal to the United Nations' 191-members, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
While most U.N. members support a ban on the cloning of human beings, there is deep division whether it should extend to the cloning of human embryos for stem cell research.
The United States supports a ban on such research, known as "therapeutic cloning," but it agreed to withdraw its demand for a vote on a Costa Rican resolution that would have opened formal negotiations on a ban.
In exchange, the U.N. assembly promised to resume discussions in February on a non-binding declaration, drafted by Italy, appealing to nations to "prohibit any attempts to create human life through cloning processes and any research intended to achieve that aim."
Costa Rica's ambassador said he would abandon his push for a treaty banning all forms of human cloning if the General Assembly approves the declaration as currently written.
