The government will set up an ethics committee to make sure scientists do not create "uncontrollable monsters" as the country develops its biotechnology industry, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said today.

Mahathir, opening a four-day biotechnology conference, said the development of new sciences such as the cloning of humans must be controlled.

"It seems that we can now produce any number of Einsteins and also numerous Hitlers.

"The ethical scientist may not want to do this but there will be crooked scientists working under crooked regimes who may flood the earth with uncontrollable monsters," he said.

"It is fine to produce specific organs for transplanting in human bodies but we should not try to play God and think of populating this earth with creatures which may destroy us in the end."