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SYDNEY scientists are confident they will be the first in the world to create cloned human embryos after the announcement of a $550,000 government grant to help advance the controversial research.

The NSW and Victorian governments will provide the funds to Sydney IVF and the Australian Stem Cell Centre in Melbourne for a joint project comparing three different types of stem cells.

Kylie de Boer, of Sydney IVF, said the company's scientists would use spare IVF eggs that were immature or failed to fertilise properly to carry out therapeutic cloning, also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer.

No scientists have yet succeeded in creating cloned embryos from a patient's skin cell and extracting embryonic stem cells from them.

"But the people working for us are the best minds in the business. We are very confident we will do it," Dr de Boer said.

Any embryonic stem cells obtained through therapeutic cloning will be compared with embryonic stem cells extracted from excess IVF embryos and with a new, third type of embryonic-like stem cells.

These induced pluripotent stem cells, imported from...