Overriding a government task force's disputed recommendation, the Hatoyama administration plans to allocate 22.7 billion yen to a next-generation supercomputer project in the fiscal 2010 budget, sources said.

The decision came Wednesday after Nobel laureates criticized the Government Revitalization Unit's proposals to cut science and technology budgets.

The budget review team had recommended a freeze on the science ministry's request for 26.8 billion yen to develop the world's fastest supercomputer.