The North's economy minister, Mr John McFall, has defended the British government's economic blueprint for Northern Ireland following renewed criticism of the plan by a leading advisory body.

The Northern Ireland Economic Council - whose remit is to provide independent advice to the Northern Secretary, Dr Mowlam, on the development of economic policy - yesterday criticised Strategy 2010 as "ad hoc and weak".

In a report entitled "A Step Change in Economic Performance? A Response to Strategy 2010", the council identifies a shortfall between the strategy's recommendations and the targets it sets out to achieve.

But Mr McFall said, while he welcomed the council's report as a valuable contribution, it was important to implement the strategy's recommendations as a matter of urgency.

"Strategy 2010 was the culmination of a year's hard work by a large number of committed people from throughout Northern Ireland. We simply cannot afford to stand still now. If we do, we will actually be going backwards," the economy minister added. The chairwoman of the council, Ms Janet Trewsdale said, while it welcomed the vision of an economically successful Northern Ireland outlined in the strategy document, they had only found three clear connections between the 62 recommendations set out in the plan and its 10 targets.

Meanwhile, the British government has come under attack from the vice-chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast, Prof George Bain, for cutting investment in research and development in the North's universities.

Speaking at the 1999 Northern Ireland Economic Conference at Galgorm, Co Antrim, Prof Bain warned that, unless university research and development was funded on a comparable basis to that in Great Britain and the Republic, "the knowledge base of the new Northern Ireland economy will shrink and our competitive position will decline".