The paper, citing a forthcoming book by Lord Winston, says doctors could use modern techniques to implant an embryo into a man's abdomen, allowing him to carry it to full term and give birth by caesarean section.

Professor Robert Winston, who was ennobled three years ago, is head of the fertility clinic at a leading London hospital.

``Male pregnancy would certainly be possible, and would be the same as when a woman has an ectopic pregnancy -- outside the uterus -- although to sustain it, you'd Have to give the man lots of female hormones,'' the paper quoted him as saying.

He outlines the concept in a book due to be published in April.

Winston said such foetuses could be implanted inside the abdomen with the placenta, through which the baby is fed, attached to an internal organ, such as the bowel .