ROME (AP) - An Italian gynaecologist who believes that women should be able to have children long past menopause announced that a 62-year-old patient had given birth yesterday to a boy, apparently the world's oldest woman to deliver. Mother and child were well, said Severino Antinori, whose Rome clinic arranged the artificial insemination of the woman with her husband's sperm and a donor's egg.

Thanks to hormone treatment, Rosanna Della Corte 'has the physique of a 30-to-45-year-old', said Dr Antinori of the mother, whose son he delivered by Caesarean section. 'Her son won't be growing up with an old woman, but with a woman who is (like) 35,' Dr Antinori said.

The baby weighed nearly 3.3 kg (about 7 lb), Dr Antinori said, adding that Mrs Della Corte was up and walking, and should be released in two or three days from the Rome hospital where the 45-minute operation was performed.

The boy was named Riccardo, the same name as the couple's first son, who was killed three years ago, aged 17, in an accident while riding his motor scooter. Dr Antinori declined to name the hospital where he did the delivery.

(Photograph omitted)