Kishinyov, Monday

DOCTORS today blamed the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster for the birth

of a two-headed baby last week in the former Soviet republic of Moldova.

Doctors at the Moldova Republic Maternity Hospital in Kishinyov told

Reuters the girl was born in the town of Taraclia on August 18 with two

heads, two hearts, two sets of lungs and two spinal cords, although she

had only one set of limbs.

The mother, who was not identified, had previously produced three

normal children.

Her doctors said it was Moldova's worst mutation linked to the

radiation effects of the power plant explosion at Chernobyl, in the

neighbouring Republic of Ukraine.

''This is the first baby I know of born with two heads in my 20 years

of work,'' Dr Petru Stratulat, deputy chief surgeon at the hospital,

told Reuters. ''Probably it is one of the consequences of Chernobyl.''

He said that since Chernobyl the number of malformed babies had

increased by 30% to about 1500 a year, despite a fall in the birthrate.

''The chances of this baby's survival are practically nil,'' he said. --

Reuter.