Rome

A researcher at a private laboratory near

Cremona faces a sentence of three months in prison and a fine of ¤205 (Pounds 133) for allegedly cloning a bullock from the blood cells of a bull. Cesare Galli denies the charges. He said the egg that produced the bull was cloned before March 1997 when a law on

animal experiments was passed. The egg was frozen and implanted in April 1998. The

bullock was born in January 1999 when modifications to the 1997 law, which researchers believe permitted their work, were passed.