Raelian movement offices in Seoul were raided and two of its leaders forbidden from travelling abroad as prosecutors yesterday probed possible South Korean involvement in the sect's claims that it created the world's first human clone.

BioFusion Tech Inc., the Korean subsidiary of Clonaid, a company founded by the Raelians, has been under investigation since July after it said three South Korean women were involved in a human-cloning experiment and one of them had been impregnated with a cloned fetus.

Yesterday, those claims came to a head when investigators broke windows in BioFusion's offices in Seoul and Daegu and seized documents. Company spokesman Kwak Gi-Hwa told Agence France-Press that he and BioFusion's president are banned from leaving the country.

The raids came as a 3.1-kilogram baby named Eve, who the sect has declared to be the first human clone, was to be leaving hospital. She was to be taken to her home in an undisclosed country, according to U.S.-based Clonaid chief executive, Brigitte Boisselier.

"The baby is going home, and once at home it is possible for an independent expert to go there," Dr. Boisselier told the Guardian newspaper. "Once a sample is taken, we will see . . . perhaps by the end of the week, or early next week, we should have all the details."

So far, Dr. Boisselier has failed to provide any proof that the baby, who she said was born by cesarean section on Boxing Day, actually exists. However, she said that proof will be forthcoming: an independent journalist is to monitor verification tests on the baby and its 31-year-old American mother.

Yesterday, U.S. State Department experts appeared at a loss as to how they would handle the prospect of someone seeking an American passport for a newborn clone.

The Raelian movement has said 20 more baby clones are expected in the next year, with the first to be born to a North American couple living in Europe due to arrive next week. The company has said it will offer the service at about $200,000 (U.S.) per clone and there is already a waiting list of 2,000 people.

Based in Las Vegas, Nev., Clonaid was founded in 1997 by the Raelians, which says it has 55,000 followers worldwide. The movement believes extraterrestrials arrived on Earth in flying saucers some 25,000 years ago and created human beings.

Despite the outrageous claims, the mere possibility of human cloning has prompted world leaders to condemn the action. French President Jacques Chirac said it should be made a worldwide crime, while the the Vatican labelled it an "expression of a brutal mentality, devoid of any humane or ethical considerations."

In Canada, Farah Mohamed, spokeswoman for federal Health Minister Anne McLellan, said from Ottawa that the minister "believes very strongly that banning cloning is important, that it reflects the concerns of Canadians." A law that would, among other things, ban the cloning of human embryos for research and therapeutic purposes, is expected to pass in 2003.

Peter Singer, director of the University of Toronto's Joint Centre for Bioethics, said he wouldn't discount the possibility that there is a cloned baby, but there is no proof.

"This is exactly the opposite of how you'd like to see science happening. What you have in this situation is secret scientists, no scientific review, no ethical review, no data, no paper, no nothing," Dr. Singer said in a telephone interview yesterday. "It's just science in secret without ethical review."

If such a cloned baby exists, Dr. Singer said he is concerned for her health, as it is "far more likely than not that the child will have serious health defects."