Australia's top athletes have received a boost ahead of next year's London Olympics with the Federal Goverment increasing funding for elite sport by almost $3 million.

Under its Direct Athlete Support scheme, $7.43 million will be made available to 665 athletes across 30 sports.

That's up almost $3 million on the 2009-10 budget and Federal Sports Minister Mark Arbib said the extra funds would help Australian athletes keep up with rival nations.

"We know international sport is only getting tougher, and what we are seeing when we travel overseas is other countries are investing more and more in their teams and also their training facilities and sports science," said Mr Arbib.

"There is no doubt about it, world class sport is becoming more and more competitive and the Australian goverment wants to ensure our athletes are the best prepared."

The new financing will allow 109 more athletes to receive support and also increases funding for those who are in the top four in the world in their sports from $13,000 to $21,000.

"We think this is a fantastic result for our athletes," Mr Arbib said.

"To put this into some sort of context, in 2005, when Direct Athlete Support first came in, it helped about 105 of our athletes, now it will support 665 athletes.

"It is something we are very proud of and will go a long way to assisting our athletes on their way to London and other world championship events."

Ian McCullough
AAP