Two separate DNA tests at independent labs verified that ``the wolves on display in a zoo were cloned wolves,'' the Committee on Research Integrity of Seoul National University said in a statement.

The committee said it found that the research team did not attempt to intentionally manipulate data, saying that the researchers had inserted an incorrect number in DNA information for a paper whose results were published in the journal Cloning and Stem Cells.

Lee Byeong-chun, a former collaborator of disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk, announced in March that his team had succeeded in cloning the two wolves, named Snuwolf and Snuwolffy, both born in October 2005.

But the veracity of the cloning was soon called into question after young South Korean scientists in online weblogs raised the allegations of data manipulation.

Lee's team succeeded in cloning a female dog, an Afghan hound named Bona, last year after creating the world's first cloned dog in 2005.