One of the country's top brain surgeons has launched an uncompromising attack on the government's decision to set up a centre to promote alternatives to animal experiments.

'There is no substitute for carrying out experiments on animals and it is dishonest to suggest otherwise,' Professor Tipu Aziz told The Observer. 'If we want to rid ourselves of the scourge of brain disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, we have to face the fact that we need to carry out animal experiments.'

Aziz - whose work involves placing electrodes into Parkinson's patients' brains and using electric currents to halt their tremors and restore their mobility - was speaking in the wake of the government's decision to set up a national centre for the replacement, refinement and reduction of animals in research. The news, released last week, was greeted with polite encouragement by senior science officials, cautious optimism from groups such as the RSPCA, and suspicion by anti-vivisectionists.

But many scientists believe the project is misguided and dangerous. 'We already practise the 3 Rs - replacement, refinement and reduction,' Aziz said. 'Setting up this centre implies we don't try to keep animal experiments to a minimum. We do. We should be trying to explain to people what are the massive benefits we get from experiments involving only a relatively few animals.'

Aziz, who is based at Oxford University's neurosurgery department, said that fewer than 100 macaque monkeys had been used at centres in the US, Britain and France to develop the technique of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease. More than 20,000 patients had benefited from its use and the figure could rise to millions.