The human cloning cult Clonaid says a human cloned baby has been born.
Clonaid says the birth by Caesarean went well but there is no independent scientific confirmation the baby is a clone.
Clonaid was founded in 1997 by the Raelian cult, which claims life on earth was created through genetic engineering by extraterrestrials.
French scientist and member of the Raelian sect, Brigitte Boisselier, told the AFP news agency the baby is a girl.
Ms Boisselier, president of the human cloning society Clonaid, says the birth "went very well".
The baby is the first born of five cloned babies the Raelians have said are due.
The Raelians, who claim 55,000 followers worldwide, believe life on earth was established by extraterrestrials who arrived in flying saucers 25,000 years ago, and that humans themselves were created by cloning.
The movement's founder, Rael - the former French journalist Claude Vorilhon - lives in Quebec.
He describes himself as a prophet and claims that cloning will enable humanity to attain eternal life.
{if there's any justice at all in the universe these claims of human immortality will prove true, and the strange new creatures that emerge from their laboratories will spend all their endless days, here, on this earth. immortal beings, yes, so far, but in a world that is itself dying, killed by the same blind selfishness that gave them their eternal lives.}
