The research, by the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, involves growing erectile tissue in the laboratory and re-transplanting into the rabbits.

The results, reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are astounding.

Treated rabbits, who were previously impotent, given the implants attempted to mate within one minute of being introduced to a female partner – and 83 per cent succeeded.

Professor Anthony Atala, the study leader, said: "Our results are encouraging and suggest that the technology has considerable potential for patients who need penile reconstruction.

"Our hope is that patients with congenital abnormalities, penile cancer, traumatic injury and some cases of erectile dysfunction will benefit from this technology in the future."

Curing physical impotence in humans, and rabbits for that matter, is complex and difficult, said the researchers.

But the new technique focused on growing new erectile tissue in the laboratory from harvested cells.

First muscle cells and blood vessel cells, were taken from the erectile tissue of male rabbits.

These were then grown in the laboratory and then reimplanted into the rabbits whose erectile tissue had been surgically removed.

A month after the implants were inserted organised tissue with blood vessel structures began to form.

Laboratory tests showed that the biological responses of the erectile tissue were also normal.

The test came when the rabbits were introduced to female partners. All attempted to mate within one minute, and more than 80 per cent were successful.

Most of an equal number of male rabbits lacking erectile tissue that did not receive implants made no attempt to mate.

The same team was the first in the world to engineer a rudimentary human organ in the laboratory. Bladders constructed by the Wake Forest scientists have been implanted in almost 30 children and adults.