The Washington Post says the decision is expected by the end of the year. The FDA said it has determined such food products pose no unique risks to consumers.

"Our evaluation is that the food from cloned animals is as safe as the food we eat every day," Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's chief of veterinary medicine, said.

Supporters say cloned animals will become a lucrative market for farmers and will give consumers a level of food consistency and quality that has been impossible to attain from conventional breeding.

Opponents question the ethics of the technology, the newspaper said, and have filed a petition asking the FDA to regulate cloned farm animals one type at a time. That, if approved, would greatly slow marketing approval.

Cloning could solve several farm problems, The Post reported, allowing livestock farmers to make many copies of exceptional animals and giving the producers much better control over their products.