US: US senate leaders from both parties have agreed to schedule a vote on a package of bills that would loosen President George Bush's five-year-old restrictions on human embryonic stem-cell research.
With head counts suggesting there are enough votes to pass the legislation, and President Bush having promised he would veto it, Thursday's agreement sets the stage for what could be the first full-blown showdown between the chamber and the president.
The package, which includes language identical to that passed by the House of Representatives, would allow federal funding of research on superfluous embryos that have been slated for destruction at fertility clinics.
Those days-old embryos are rich in embryonic stem cells, which scientists say have great potential for the treatment of a wide variety of ailments, including spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and diabetes.
In August 2001, Mr Bush announced that federal funds could be used to study stem cells only from embryos that had already been destroyed by that date.
The president's limits have proven frustrating to US stem-cell scientists. Increasingly over the years, they have watched colleagues overseas gain access to newer and possibly more promising colonies of embryo cells.