(Editor's Note: The black magicians and mad scientists from Atlantis are back.And [hahaha] they're just "trying to help people who are sick.")

A group of scientists in Massachusetts claimed on Sunday they had cloned the first early human embryo, a step toward providing genetically matched replacement cells for patients with a wide range of diseases.

The scientists at Advanced Cell Technology, in Worcester, Massachusetts, say they have no immediate interest in transplanting such early embryos into a woman's womb to give birth to a cloned human being.

Several states, including California, have banned human cloning. Congress is considering such a ban.

"These are exciting preliminary results," said Dr Robert Lanza, one of the researchers at Advanced Cell Technology. "This work sets the stage for human therapeutic cloning as a potentially limitless source of immune-compatible cells for tissue engineering and transplantation medicine."

In findings published Sunday by The Journal of Regenerative Medicine and described online in Scientific American, the scientists said they had grown a six-cell human embryo.