The government aims to become the leader in the areas which include supercomputers and measurement and seabed research technologies, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, citing government sources.

Also included are biotechnology, nanotechnology and other advanced science and technology fields in which Japan, the United States and Europe are in fierce competition, the report said.

Tokyo has decided to narrow its major strategic goals to allow for an efficient distribution of limited budgetary and human resources, the report said.

The goals will be included in the government's third-term basic plan for science and technology, which will cover the period between fiscal 2006 and 2010, to be compiled in the year to March 2006, the Yomiuri said.

The strategic goals were set by a committee of the Council for Science and Technology, a government advisory panel.

"The roots of the nation's vitality and presence in the international community lie in the international competitiveness of its industries," the committee said in a report.

The committee set an immediate goal of developing by 2010 a next-generation supercomputer to replace the Earth Simulator, which was the world's fastest supercomputer when it was built in 2002, the Yomiuri said.

Concerning seabed research, the committee placed the greatest importance on discovering energy resources and useful microbes and enzymes and deciphering the mechanisms of marine earthquakes, it said.

All rights reserved. copyright 2018 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.