Brown aims to pick ‘boom industries’ for extra backing

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Critics said the strategy was a throwback to the failed economics of the Seventies when governments believed they could "pick winners" that would create prosperity.

But the Prime Minister dismissed the comparison, saying that at a time of unprecedented upheavals in world economies it was vital to spot where new opportunities lay and help British firms exploit them.

"We have got to look at what our inherent strengths are and build on those strengths to build for the future," he said. "You can't go back to the old policy of picking winners and hoping that will work."

Measures would include skills training, faster planning laws and investment in science.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said growing industries such as low-carbon technologies could get help with innovation, skills, finance, infrastructure and trade.

But the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, said: "I saw this 25 years ago and it would just mean committees of politicians and civil servants claiming to know more than businesses do. The real future industries are often firms that no one has yet heard of."