Clone scientist blames it on fellow researchers

The University had issued a report which said that Suk's claims were fabricated.

Clone scientist Hwang Woo-suk has apologised for his fraudulent publications but at the same time has blamed his fellow junior researchers for deceiving him.

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"I ask for your forgiveness," Hwang said in a nationally televised news conference in Seoul. "I feel so miserable that it's difficult to even say sorry."

Hwang, in his first public appearance in nearly three weeks, continued to insist that he had the technology to create human embryonic stem cells which genetically matched the cells of the parents. Suk said that he could do so within six months if he had access to enough human eggs.

Seoul National University had issued a report on Tuesday which said that Suk's claim to have created the world's first human embryonic stem cells from cloned embryos was fabricated.

"I have to take full responsibility for the use of fake data. I acknowledge all of that and apologise once again," he said.

However, Hwang repeated his earlier claims that he was deceived about the data by two junior scientists at a partner research hospital, and said that he believed that his papers were legitimate when they were published.

He said that his team cloned human embryos and grew them to a stage where stem cells could be extracted. However, junior researchers at a Seoul hospital in charge of growing stem cells from them had lied to him.