BELGRADE, December 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The world’s first cloned baby will be born in Belgrade in January, controversial Italian gynecologist Severino Antinori said in an interview in the Serbian weekly Nin.

“I think we have made a revolution in the field of genetics and Serbia will be one of three countries which will go down in history,” Antinori was quoted as saying.

“When the time comes you will be informed about the birth and the family,” said the doctor, who spent the past week in Belgrade for a seminar on sterilization and artificial insemination.

The paper, which said it followed Antinori’s movements during his stay in Belgrade, said it followed him to the private Belgrade artificial insemination clinic Papic.

Antinori declined to confirm if the cloned baby would be born at the Papic clinic.

Last month, Antinori told journalists the woman’s pregnancy was progressing normally, and the male fetus was healthy and had “more than a 90 percent chance” of being born.

The doctor, who first announced the pregnancies in April, insisted he had not carried out the procedure himself, and that his involvement was merely “cultural and scientific.”

An international group of about 20 specialists including Antinori and American doctor Panos Zavos announced in January of last year they intended to clone a human being in order to help sterile couples have children.

Antinori said last month that he now has almost no contact with Pavos.

Antinori, 57, shot to notoriety in 1994 when he succeeded in helping a 63-year-old post-menopausal Italian woman become pregnant through fertilization treatment administered at his Rome clinic.

Prominent Muslim scholar, Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa on the subject saying: “Genetic engineering has only proven to be a nightmare since animal cloning was carried out and then applied on the famous sheep, Dolly.

“Animal cloning has become a nightmare scenario for many people all over the world, as they have premonitions of it being practiced on human beings.”

While he reassured the importance of scientific progress and research in Islam, Al-Qaradawi said that this progress, like everything in life, must not collide with faith.

It must move in parallel with the limitations set by religion, which must prevail over man’s course of life and customize it according to its principles.

He said that animal cloning is permissible only if it brings about a real benefit to all people, does not result in harm which is greater than the benefit it has produced, and must not bear any kind of harm to the animal used in the process.

Al-Qaradawi said that cloning a whole human body is completely prohibited even if it is for the purpose of treatment.