London (CNSNews.com) - Claims by a rogue Italian scientist that three women are currently pregnant with cloned embryos should not be taken lightly, a leading British pro-life group said Thursday.

Dr. Severino Antinori told an Italian television show on Wednesday that two of the three women were in former Soviet republics and one was in an "Islamic state." The fetuses, he said, are nine, seven and six weeks old.

Antinori denied that he was directly involved in any of the pregnancies. He also said that eight cloned embryos have been created in China but have not yet been implanted into women.

Antinori has often stated his intention to create the world's first human clone and earlier this month he told a reporter from the Gulf News, an English-language newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates, that a woman was pregnant with a cloned embryo.

Scientists and health authorities have remained skeptical of Antinori's claims, and the doctor has produced no proof of the pregnancies. But Peter Garrett, director of research and education for the U.K.-based Life charity, said those concerned about the use of cloning technology in humans "should not ignore his claims."

"Antinori is not claiming that these cloned pregnancies have been produced by his own team," Garrett said Thursday. "What interest would he have in promoting false claims on behalf of his competitors?"

Garrett said that while Antinori actively seeks publicity, as many as 30 scientific teams may be operating under less scrutiny in an attempt to create a human clone.

"Let's not underestimate the significance of what is being perpetrated here - human cloning is set to change what it means to be human," he said. "The public needs to be reminded that this amounts to an immoral and highly dangerous experiment, which will endanger the lives of both the babies and the surrogate mothers carrying them."

Garrett pointed out that during initial trials to create a cloned sheep at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, only one out of 29 embryos developed correctly. Animal experiments would seem to indicate that the three alleged human pregnancies will fail, but he warned that the quest for a human clone would soon become a "numbers game."

"The low probability of an individual success will yield to the law of large numbers," Garrett said.

Scientists disagree

Dr. Harry Griffith, a spokesman for the Roslin Institute, disagreed with Garrett's assertions and said Antinori's claims could be dismissed outright.

"He has a whole list of claims that have never been substantiated," Griffith said by phone from Edinburgh. "The news media take far too much notice of his passing comments.

"Antinori has never made any of his evidence public except in front of journalists or a media circus," he said.

Cloning human embryos for reproductive, rather than research, purposes is banned in many countries, but Antinori claims that China, India, Russia and the Muslim countries are more favorable to the idea of human cloning than Western nations.

After his most recent statements, an official with the Rome Medical Association told the Reuters news agency Antinori is currently the subject of several investigations, but refused to give details.

In January, Roslin scientists said Dolly, the first cloned sheep, had developed an unusual form of arthritis. It is not known whether the disease can be attributed to the fact that she is a clone. The Roslin scientists say that about 1 percent of cloned mammal embryos actually produce live offspring and that many die in late pregnancy or soon after birth.