The scientists who created Dolly the sheep, the world's first adult clone, said Wednesday they hoped to make a genetically-manipulated clone that contained human genes by the end of the year.

The researchers at Scotland's Roslin Institute and PPL Therapeutics Plc also hope they can clone an adult cow by the end of the year.

We expect to have transgenic clones within this year, said Dr. Alan Colman, research director at PPL. Such a clone would contain human genes.

News that a sheep had been cloned using a cell from an adult sheep shocked the world and prompted a flurry of soul-searching about whether the technology was morally acceptable.

This week President Clinton banned federal funding of cloning and German Research Minister Juergen Ruettgers called for a worldwide ban on cloning human beings.

Danish scientists who were trying to produce cloned cattle said Wednesday they were halting experiments pending a full debate on the issue.

We have stopped our attempt to transfer embryos using the technique where the cells from an adult animal are included, said Henrik Callesen, director of the Foulum Embryo-Technology Center..

But the Roslin and PPL researchers say cloning is a natural outgrowth of their research into animal breeding and the production of medicines from animal blood and milk.

PPL already has non-cloned sheep that have partly human genes. The transgenic sheep produce a human protein, AAT, that is now being tested for use in treating cystic fibrosis.

The company also has a herd of cows in Blacksburg, Va., and is attempting to clone them.

It is still early days, Colman said. There are no live-born Dollies in the cow area.

But he hoped for a cow clone quite late this year. Pig clones are even farther down the road, he said.

Dolly may be a clone but she is not transgenic, since her genes are 100 percent sheep genes.

The point of the cloning is to be able to genetically manipulate cells before the embryos are conceived in the test-tube, thus creating live animals that have precisely the genetic characteristics that the company wants.

For example, PPL would like to be able to more efficiently produce AAT, since current ways of creating transgenic animals are hit and miss. They can introduce the human DNA into a cell, but it only takes in the animal cell about five percent of the time.

What we actually want to do is create a successful cell and create a clone of animals, Colman said. We are hoping for an instant production herd.

Cloning technology could also help researchers remove undesirable genes as well as put genes in, Colman said.