The mammoth project could well have achieved its objective of producing a complete human plan by 2002, a whole year earlier than expected, Francis Collins, Director of the US National Genome Research Institute, told an American Medical Association (AMA) conference in San Francisco.

The Institute says its scientists, who recently secured support from Britain's Wellcome Trust and a consortium of private companies, are around three years ahead of their original time schedule.

According to Collins, the map of the human genome will show among other things what genetic ``slips'' are to blame for hereditary diseases. It will also reveal the cause of multiple sclerosis, most forms of cancer, high blood pressure andschizophrenia.