Chancellor Gordon Brown has given a strong hint that science teaching will be boosted as part of a cash injection in education this summer.

In a speech to the annual conference of manufacturing union Amicus, Mr Brown said science would be a priority area in next month's comprehensive spending review.

Our spending review can and will do more to sustain and build UK science in the face of increasing global competition

Gordon Brown

A report commissioned by the chancellor this year urged ministers to allocate an extra �50m - and business �30m - for a new scheme to give every secondary school pupil five days' business experience.

Mr Brown's latest signal, welcomed by science pressure groups, comes after Tony Blair stressed the importance of science teaching in schools and universities.

Cabinet ministers continue to haggle for more money in the public spending review, which will set out finance plans for the next three years.

Recruitment worries

In Monday's speech, Mr Brown said: "Just as we have been winning the battles to increase employment and entrench stability, we must now win the productivity war."

Increasing the chances for education and for encouraging innovation meant the public spending review would continue to remove key barriers to better productivity, he said.

Blair has stressed the importance of science teaching

If those obstructions were swept aside, he argued, the UK could again be a leader on science and innovation, as well as encouraging more small businesses.

Mr Brown also advocated better infrastructure to ensure there was "regionally balanced" economic growth.

But "most of all", an emphasis had to be put on investing in skills and education, he continued.

New action promised

Two thirds of growth comes from innovation said Mr Brown.

To create the "virtuous cycle of innovation we need from the university lab and the science park to the workplace of every country", tax credits were already in place.

But new steps would be taken in the spending review to:

• Improve the science and technology skills base
• Re-equip science and engineering laboratories in colleges and universities
• Fund undergraduate researchers in science, technology and engineering to tackle key skills shortages
• Invest in improving the quality of science research, as well as ensuring there was more of it
• Continue the work of regional science enterprise centres to "spin-off" companies from research and ensure inventions were funded.

"Our spending review can and will do more to sustain and build UK science in the face of increasing global competition," said Mr Brown.

That included tackling problems in recruiting, retaining and training skilled scientists.

Paul Boateng is now overseeing the spending talks

In a clear indication that schools would see funds boosted next month, Mr Brown underlined his pledge to "significantly" raise the share of national income spent on education.

The spending review would offer new chances for people to stay on at schools and to study at colleges and universities, he said.

New resources, as well as reform, would go into colleges to support the four million students now in further education, he added.

The chancellor said the spending review gave no "blank cheques" but "resources must be tied to results".

Lessons in business

The speech was welcomed by Peter Cotgreave, director of the Save British Science Society, which has argued the UK's best scientists have been going to America.

"For years, SBS and others have been saying that recruiting good people into the science base is crucial to the economy.

"Today, the chancellor demonstrated that the message is getting home."

Sir Howard Davies, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, wrote a report on science and enterprise investment for Mr Brown in February.

He pressed for a new initiative which could allow schoolchildren to set up and run their own mini companies in an effort to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit.

When the report was published, Mr Brown indicated the suggestions would almost certainly receive the funds they needed.

Last month Tony Blair warned the UK risked being overtaken by other countries if it lets unjustified protests stifle vital scientific advances.