Previous transplant attempts have involved a womb donated by a close relative of the recipient in the hope that this offered the best chance of it being accepted by the latter's immune system.

But Mr Smith found that this technique, which would have allowed mothers to donate their wombs to their daughters, was not feasible as not enough tissue could be removed from the donor to guarantee a good blood supply when the organ was transplanted.

There are 15,000 women in Britain who have no uterus and up to 200 of them each year opt to have children through surrogacy - where another woman carries the baby for them.

In order to carry out a human transplant the Hammersmith Hospital team would need funding of about ¡ê250,000 a year.

Currently their work is funded by charitable donations from research and education organisations.

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