Charles Kennedy has set out the legislative priorities for the Liberal Democrats over the coming months.

The Lib Dem leader detailed his party's "alternative Queen's Speech" on Thursday, giving top priority to the repeal of university top-up fees.

Kennedy said that other priorities would be to replace the council tax system with a local income tax scheme, and to take action to help pensioners off means-tested benefits.

"In this parliament, the Liberal Democrats have provided the main opposition over the Iraq war and we have opposed measures such as the introduction of student top-up fees," said Kennedy.

"The government is running scared of the Liberal Democrats and is in danger of following its Conservative predecessors in stoking up a climate of fear and eroding civil liberties unnecessarily.

"We will continue to hold the government to account over the role of British soldiers in Iraq and its relationship with George W. Bush."

But Kennedy said his party also aimed to adopt a different agenda to that put forward by Labour.

"This alternative programme for the Queen's Speech establishes our priorities for action at Westminster," he said.

"We would introduce measures in the Queen's Speech that would create a fairer society in which people have their freedoms protected and their fear of crime reduced."

Costs

Other key issues for the party include the introduction of free personal care for the elderly, policing and criminal justice reforms, and measures to protect the environment.

The plans got a frosty reception from Labour, with Treasury chief secretary Paul Boateng saying the sums "simply don't add up".

"In the last two years, the Lib Dems have made over 100 spending commitments that no responsible government could deliver. Today, we have yet another menu without prices," he said.

Boateng added that the Lib Dems were planning to cut £25 billion of planned spending "but give absolutely no details of where these cuts would fall".

"Until they tell us where the money is coming from to pay for their endless of list of commitments no one will take seriously any pledge they make," he added.