Wales successful as a 'small, clever country'

Rhodri Morgan has claimed he will leave Wales as a successful "small, clever country" when he leaves office in 2009.

The first minister told the Welsh Labour conference on Sunday that critics of the devolution had been proved wrong, with the Cardiff assembly having shown it could handle its own affairs in an "open and democratic way".

He said progress was being made in health, education, improving the environment and attracting inward investment.

However he admitted that the coalition assembly government he formed with Plaid Cymru last year had made life harder for Labour.

"It is hard, really hard, as someone who has been in this party for 43 years, to be working across political divides with Plaid Cymru," he said.

"So far, we have managed to get along on a careful, business-like basis, focused on delivering the programme which this party endorsed in July.

"None of this means that we share a set of common political values or purposes."

Morgan promised that Labour would take on Plaid with "no inhibitions, no holds barred" in council elections in May.

Part of the joint policy platform has been to look at giving the assembly Scottish-style legislative powers, with a view to a referendum in 2011.

However earlier in the weekend, Wales secretary Paul Murphy said that improving public services should come first for ministers.

"Those are the issues that people care most about and it's delivering those services that should be our priority," he said.

In his own speech to the conference, the prime minister also praised devolution but stressed the importance of UK-wide policies.

"Our message is one for the whole of the United Kingdom: stronger together, weaker apart," Gordon Brown said.

"We also know whether it's the need to co-operate for a safe environment or national security, or for the safeguarding of pensions and general economic success, that there is no Wales-only, no England-only, no Scotland-only solution to the biggest challenges we face."