OTTAWA The Canadian government proposed on Thursday to ban all human cloning, while advocating that scientists be allowed to mix animal and human cells and genes for research purposes.

According to Reuters, Health Minister Allan Rock took a more liberal line than the Bush administration in saying research on stem cells from human embryos should be allowed, but he was more conservative than Britain in recommending a ban on the creation of embryos solely for research purposes.

The proposals were part of draft legislation the liberal minister submitted to a parliamentary committee on Thursday to fill a void in regulations not only on cloning but also on other reproduction issues, such as surrogate motherhood.

"A higher notion than science alone should guide science," Rock told the House of Commons Health Committee. "It is clear that there are many different views on these complex issues -- moral and ethical as well as scientific and legal."

One surprise in his draft bill was allowing for the creation of "chimeras" -- human embryos that have nonhuman cells introduced, or animal embryos with human cells added. It also allows for human and animal DNA to be combined. Government officials said any altered human embryos would have to be destroyed 14 days after their creation.

Bioethicist Francoise Baylis told a news conference the arms-length government body Canadian Institutes for Health Research, with which she is affiliated, had recommended in March that there should be a moratorium on chimeras, which she defined as "animal-human hybrids."

Rock told Reuters there was no worry about hybrid animal-human beings walking around. He cited the current practice by an Alberta scientist of putting human tissue in combination with mouse DNA to create a healthy "islet" for a pancreas to help cure a diabetic.

The draft rules, which Rock is asking the Health Committee to work on until next January, would ban the transfer of any animal sperm, eggs or embryos into a human being.

They would also prohibit "rent-a-womb" services, or payments to a woman to bear someone else's baby, the use of gender selection in assisted reproduction and the purchase of sperm or eggs from donors by sperm clinics.

The issue of whether to allow research on embryos is sensitive since it gets into the ultimate question of when human life begins -- at conception as abortion opponents say or much later as abortion rights advocates insist.

Rock said his view is that up to 14 days after conception is all right because the central nervous system has not yet started to develop, but he promised to listen to discussion on the issues.