A scientist connected with Clonaid, a company founded by the Quebec-based UFO cult know as the Raelians, announced Friday that the world's first cloned baby, a girl named Eve, had been delivered by caesarean section a day earlier.

"I'm very very pleased to announce that the first baby clone is born," Clonaid head Brigitte Boisselier, a former research chemist from France, said at a news conference in Hollywood, Fla.

She said the infant, weighing seven pounds (3.1 kg), was delivered on Dec. 26 at 11:55 a.m.

Boisselier did not present DNA evidence showing a genetic match between a gene donor and the baby -- an omission that leaves her claim scientifically unsupported.

"The baby is very healthy. She's doing fine," she said.

Boisellier, who wouldn't reveal where the baby was born, said the child is a clone of a 31-year-old American woman whose husband is infertile. Boisellier said the woman donated her DNA for the cloning process and also carried the baby.

If confirmed, that would make the child an exact genetic duplicate of her mother.

Neither the baby nor the mother, who Boisellier said was not a member of the Raelians sect, was present at the announcement.

Boisellier said an independent expert will take DNA samples from the donor and the baby to prove she had been cloned. Test results are expected within about nine days.

Boisselier said she accepted an offer by former ABC News science editor Michael Guillen, now a freelance journalist, to facilitate the testing.

Guillen said he has no connection to Clonaid, and told the news conference he has chosen "world-class, independent experts" to draw DNA from the mother and the newborn and test them for a match.

Cloning and the law

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is taking a look at Clonaid's claims. The Food and Drug Administration says it will look into whether any of the alleged cloning work was done in the U.S. While the U.S. has no specific law against human cloning, the FDA has said its rules forbid human cloning without prior agency permission.

It was not clear what steps the FDA would take, but a source said the agency plans to ask Clonaid exactly where the alleged cloning took place.

The White House said Friday U.S. President George Bush is "deeply" troubled by efforts to clone human beings and wants Congress to ban the practice.

"The president believes, like most Americans, that human cloning is deeply troubling and he strongly supports legislation banning all human cloning," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"Despite the widespread skepticism among scientists and medical professionals about today's announcement, it underscores the need for the new Congress to act on bipartisan legislation to ban all human cloning."

Raelian belief system supports cloning

The Raelians, who believe extra-terrestrials created life on Earth through genetic engineering and advocate the cloning of humans, created Clonaid in 1997. The company's web site says its "main goal is to give life to the first human clone."

Experts were quick to question Boisselier's assertion that the baby was born healthy and unaffected by the cloning process. Cloning research has produced many deformed and dead animals.

"We don't know that the baby is healthy. Even if the baby was born healthy, there is a chance the baby will get sick and suffer later on in life," Dr. Peter Singer, Director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, told CTV Newsnet.

"What we know, for instance, from Dolly the sheep, is Dolly was born healthy and then later had premature aging and arthritis," he added.

Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned, was created in 1997. She later developed arthritis at an abnormally young age, but one of her creators said earlier this year it was unclear if the condition was related to the cloning.

Scientists say human cloning by a private company is an unlikely achievement but is not impossible.

"My first reaction is 'Is it true?' And we still don't have the proof that it is. We haven't seen a baby. We don't know whether she's healthy. We haven't seen any genetic tests that show the baby is genetically identical to the mother. So it's possible it is true, but we don't yet have the proof that it is," said Singer.

To make a clone, scientists take DNA from a cell and inject it into a hollowed-out egg from a young woman donor. The egg is then subjected to a jolt of electricity that begins the formation of an embryo.

At least one doctor says Clonaid's claims are all the more plausible because they have a number of young women followers who are willing egg donors.

In Rome, fertility doctor Severino Antinori, who said weeks ago that a cloned baby boy would be born in January, dismissed Clonaid's claims and said the group has no scientific credibility.

The Raelians, who claim 55,000 members worldwide, believe human life was created by DNA brought to earth by an alien race. Their founder and leader is Rael, a former French journalist known as Claude Vorilhon.

The group's headquarters, called UFO Land, are located in Valcourt, Que., about 200 km east of Montreal.

With files from the Associated Press