The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Thursday May 26, 2005

We state, correctly, in the article below, that James Watson and Francis Crick were awarded the Nobel prize for medicine in 1962 but omit to say that they shared that prize with Maurice Wilkins for his part in determining the helical structure of DNA.

James Watson, the biologist who won a Nobel Prize for unravelling the secrets of DNA with Francis Crick in 1953, has launched a scathing attack on Britain for its "piss poor" approach to stem cell research.

The scientist described Britain as a "bit player" in the field and said the country would continue to lag behind the rest of the world if the government did not dramatically increase the £40m it currently spends on stem cell research.

In a candid talk at the Science Museum in London last night, Dr Watson questioned the UK's commitment to new genetic research that could yield treatments for degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

"I think there should be some urgency and I must say I detect in England no urgency at all," he said. "It is much more important what happens to Manchester United - that seems to be the only urgency situation in the UK. Priorities are a little wrong."

His comments came a day after researchers at Newcastle University said they had cloned a human embryo for the first time in Britain.

Their announcement coincided with the news that South Korean scientists had created stem cells tailored to patients with specific illnesses.

Urging the government to raise its stem cell research budget, he said: "You want to be in the same league as the Koreans, but do you want to be a big player? Rather now, you are a bit player."

Dr Watson said he had not been particularly stunned by news of the Newcastle team's achievement, but said they still needed more support.

"I wasn't very surprised," he said. "It is nice science, but they should just be doing it faster. I met them in Newcastle. You have one post doc[toral researcher] - there should be a group 10 times the size. You are not doing it on a level to have a real impact on the world or on science.

"Most of Europe is doing nothing. Britain has said they are doing something, but they are going about it in a piss poor fashion."

He also used the discussion to dismiss moral objections to stem cell research. The 77-year-old American said he did not believe sperm had a soul, and added that religious arguments over the new technology seemed "rather false piety".

He has been a vociferous advocate of stem cell research despite the controversy and stringent regulations it has attracted in the US.

President George Bush was accused of caving in to anti-abortion groups when he limited federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to only the 78 stem cell lines in existence before August 2001.

Mr Bush made his position on the issue even clearer yesterday when he said he would veto legislation currently nearing fruition on Capitol Hill that would allow more government funding of stem cell research. He said he was against "the use of federal money, taxpayers' money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life."

Mr Bush has never used his veto power.

Dr Watson was 24 when he and Francis Crick realised that the DNA molecule resembled a twisted ladder, or "double helix", while working at Cambridge University in 1953. They were awarded the Nobel prize for medicine in 1962.