Surgeons investigating the possibility of human face transplants today said that it would be "unwise to proceed" without further research, but that they were "not adverse" to the surgery in principle.

A Royal College of Surgeons report recognised facial transplants as a possible future treatment, but said that more consideration of the psychological impact on both the recipient and the donor family was needed.

They also said that they needed to look at the long-term risks associated with drugs the patient would have to take for life in order to stop them rejecting their new face.

Plastic surgeons in the US and UK are vying to become the first to carry out a facial transplant.

Today's report, while not ruling out the prospect of the surgery in the future, comes as a setback to the British team, led by Peter Butler and based at the Royal Free Hospital, London.

Professor Sir Peter Morris, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said today: "The microsurgical skills and anatomical knowledge required to carry out facial transplants are already well established ... but facial transplantation is not only a question of technical achievement.

"We must also take into consideration the psychological impact on the recipient and on the donor family, and the considerable long-term risks of the need for lifetime immunosuppression drugs."

The report, by the College's working party, concluded that "until there is further research and the prospect of better control of these complications, it would be unwise to proceed with human facial transplantation".

It added: "Equally, this conclusion does not underestimate the suffering of those patients who might be tempted by the prospect of facial transplantation. This conclusion is not adverse to facial transplantation."

A US attempt to carry out a facial transplant is being led by John Barker, director of plastic surgery research at Louisville university, Kentucky.

He was due to speak about his team's progress and the Royal College of Surgeons report later today.