Attorney-General George Brandis has overruled a push by other senior ministers to relax a ban on Chinese telecommunications group Huawei helping build the national broadband network, The Australian Financial Review reports.

The decision is a blow to the world's biggest manufacturer of telco equipment and could strain ties between Australia and the Chinese government, which are negotiating a free-trade agreement that Prime Minister Tony Abbott wants signed within a year.

Since the previous Labor government vetoed Huawei from the NBN in 2012 on security grounds, the company has mounted a vigorous and high-profile lobbying campaign against allegations that its equipment is a security risk to communication networks.

In recent weeks Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Trade Minister Andrew Robb have publicly offered support to the company. But after briefings from the intelligence services, Mr Brandis told The Australian Financial Review that the government had considered the matter and wasn't dropping the ban.

"The decision of the previous government not to permit Huawei to tender for the NBN was made on advice from the national security agencies," he said. "That decision was supported by the then opposition after we received our own briefings from those agencies.