SINGAPORE -- Embryonic stem cells offer "unrivalled versatility" in curing diabetes, but scientists have yet to perfect the technique, AFP quoted British cloning expert Alan Colman as saying Tuesday.

Colman, who helped produce Dolly the Sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, told a medical forum here that diabetes is an "excellent target for stem cell therapy".

Although progress had been made in research, there is still some fine-tuning required, he told Biomedical Asia, a medical forum drawing together scientists and industrialists.

Colman, who moved to Singapore this year, said he had a "particular passion" for curing diabetes.

The disease is characterized by a chronic, toxic excess of sugar in the blood caused by a lack of insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas.

American researches say diabetes has reached global epidemic proportions, and Colman estimated that by 2025 the number of sufferers worldwide will increase to 300 million from 154 million this year.

Colman said he was now working on developing embryonic stem cells into insulin-producing cells to replace defective cells.

However, this approach has been only partially successful because "very low levels of insulin were made" and there are medical and regulatory issues that have to be ironed out, Colman said.

Sir Richard Sykes, rector of the London-based Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, and former chairman of Pharmaceutical Giant Glaxosmithkline, said the research offered hope for diabetes sufferers.

"Through this technology, there is the hope that you could produce cells and put them in the pancreas so that they will carry on producing insulin," Sykes said.

"The question is, could you replace these cells with cells that will produce insulin normally rather than have to give insulin injections?" Present diabetes treatment ranges from insulin injections to transplanting insulin-producing cells into the liver.

Although transplants have proved successful, it requires about three pancreases for each patient.

Scientists believe that if stem cells can be successfully engineered, they can be used to replace old, damaged or diseased tissue.

That in turn opens the prospect of vast advances in remedies for illnesses such as diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and cancer, as well as treatment for strokes, burns and spinal cord injuries.