LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Claifornia on Tuesday approved a groundbreaking measure allowing around three billion dollars in state funds to used for embryonic stem cell research, early figures showed.

The measure make California the first US state to allow official money to be used for the controversial science that was banned by President George W. Bush in 2001, effectively circumventing federal funding blocks.

The emotionally-and-politically charged Proposition 71, which allows nearly three billion dollars to be put aside for stem cell research over 10 years, passed by 59 percent against 41 percent, early results showed.

The office of the state's top electoral official, the secretary of state, said the measure was ahead by 2,551,072 votes to 1,756,900 with 41 percent of votes counted.

Supporters of the measure say the decision could help speed up the discovery of cures of diseases including cancer, AIDS, spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

They also claim that the measure will make California, already the Untied States' leading hub for biotech industries, a world hub of stem cell research too.

But opponents object to the killing of human embryos and say that the state cannot afford the massive cost of the scheme, which will come to about six billion dollars with interest.

Bush in 2001 effectively banned further federal funding for the science, citing the killing of human embryos.

The California measure is seen as a way of circumventing federal blocks to embryonic stem cell research, and was backed by scientists and Hollywood stars including Brad Pitt, and late Christopher Reeve and Michael J. Fox.

The state's movie star governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, broke ranks with his Republican Party and backed the proposition on the sensitive issue.

Bush and Democratic presidential opponent John Kerry have been diametrically opposed on embryonic stem cell research, with Bush saying its uncertain benefits do not warrant killing an embryo.

In addition to the destruction of embryos, opponents of the law, including some top bioethicists, said Proposition 71 was a waste of money which cash-strapped California cannot afford to fritter away on scientific hopes that are as yet totally unproven.

"This is an amazing triumph," Stanford University Medical Center professor Paul Berg told AFP.

"It will make an enormous difference to science and there is an enormous amount we hope to be able to learn using human embryonic stem cell cells.

"It is extremely likely that researchers in other areas of the country, and the world, whose work is hamstrung by funding or regulation, will move to California, which would become a new hub in this realm," he said.

Experts said the pace of US stem cell research has been overtaken in the past four years by work in nations including Singapore, Britain, Belgium, Israel, China and Sweden, but that California's direct democracy measure could reverse the trend.