Editors of the Science journal said on Friday that they would withdraw the disputed paper of South Korean clone scientist Hwang Woo Suk.

The journal, most prestigious in the world's scientific community, said Dr. Hwang had personally asked for the retraction.

"Science Editorial received direct communication, by telephone, from him and Dr. Gerald Schatten, the lead authors of the 2005 paper. They said they wish to retract the paper," the journal said in a statement.

"Science editors will honor the authors' request and assist them in preparing a retraction."

Earlier, the journal said it won't retract the paper until all the authors agree to do so. But now Dr. Hwang has assured that he is contacting his coauthors, according to the journal.

The journal said it "continues to follow and encourage the official investigations now underway and will have no comment on them until the investigations have been completed."

"The journal welcomes investigations being conducted by institutional authorities in Korea, as well as the inquiry now underway at the University of Pittsburgh," Science's chief Editor Donald Kennedy said.

He told a press briefing earlier that the journal itself is not an investigative body, but "we await answers from the authors, as well as official conclusions, before we can come to any ourselves."

During the briefing he also stated that the journal would endeavor to follow the developments and keep the scientific community informed.

The paper, published in the June 17 issue of Science, describes how the research team led by Hwang and Gerald Schatten, a professor from the University of Pittsburgh, derived 11 patient-specific embryonic stem cell lines from cloned human blastocysts.

But now Schatten and other Korean researchers alleged that Hwang not only "immorally" collected eggs from female personnel in laboratory, but also fabricated results. They say only two, not 11, stem cell lines were derived in the experiment.

Schatten had openly required to withdraw his name as a senior author of the paper.

Meanwhile, led by Ian Wilmut, the Scottish scientist who cloned sheep Dolly, eight world-acknowledged researchers signed a letter to the journal stating that "accusations about the validity of the experiments published in South Korea are best resolved within the scientific community."

"We encourage Hwang's laboratory to cooperate with us to perform an independent test of his cell lines to determine their nuclear and mitochondrial genotype in comparison with the donors of the original cells," said the letter.

Source: Xinhua