The bitterly divided United Nations voted narrowly today to delay any consideration of a treaty to ban human cloning for two years, a blow to a US campaign for a total ban.
By a margin of just one vote, the General Assembly's legal committee approved a motion by Iran on behalf of the 57 Islamic nations to postpone action on cloning until the assembly session that starts in September 2005.
The 80-79 vote, with 15 abstentions, reflected the deep division in the world body on how far a ban on cloning should go.
The postponement blocked the legal committee from voting on rival resolutions, one seeking a total ban and the other seeking a partial ban on human cloning.
The United States had lobbied intensively for a vote on a resolution sponsored by Costa Rica that would have established a working group to start drafting a treaty banning all forms of human cloning. That resolution was co-sponsored by about 50 countries.
A rival resolution introduced by Belgium called for a ban only on the cloning of babies, leaving the question of human cloning for research and medical experiments to individual countries.
It was co-sponsored by 13 other countries, including Britain, China, Singapore and Japan, and supported by France, Germany and other nations.