HANOI, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's Biotechnology Institute has announced they have basically succeeded in cloning a kind of wild pigs, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Thursday.

    Local scientists have used cells of the pigs to conduct cloning research to serve biodiversity preservation purposes, the newspaper said.

    They have also carried out research on cloning long-tailed monkeys and golden-furred monkeys. However, the fetal monkeys did not survive the early stage of development, it said.

    Cloning animals, especially humans, is still debating in the world. According to foreign scientists, the possible purposes of human cloning can be best explained by referring to two kinds of cloning: reproductive and therapeutic.

    In reproductive cloning, the cloned embryo is implanted in a woman's uterus. This should develop into a normal baby, its only distinction being that it would be almost genetically identical to the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) donor. Therapeutic cloning could be used to provide replacement organs, or tissue for people who have had theirs damaged.