SAN FRANCISCO -- Stanford University on Tuesday became the first U.S. institution of higher learning to announce that it plans to clone human embryos.

But the elite California University emphasized that it does not plan to make babies with the controversial research but instead plans to use it to make stem cells for medical research.

According to news reports, the research is aimed at cancer treatment and is to be carried out by a new Institute for Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine, which is being supported by a 12-million- dollar gift from an anonymous donor, DPD reported.

Stanford said it plans to make the new stem-cell lines available to other researchers as well.

Research with human embryo stem cells is allowed in the United States, but the U.S. government only supports work with stem-cell lines developed from embryos before August 2001.

Many scientists have criticized the decision by President George W. Bush, saying the restrictions make too few cell lines available and only a few of those are suitable for research.

By using therapeutic cloning, researchers hope to make quick advances against diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.