The results of any referendum on the EU constitution should be published by nation and region, Alex Salmond has said.

In a letter to Tony Blair and Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger, the SNP leader in Westminster highlighted two previous attempts to secure a breakdown of the results, when ministers declined to clarify whether it would be possible.

"On a euro referendum, the government repeatedly refused to concede that the results would be published on a Scottish basis," Salmond wrote.

"Now that there is definitely going to be a UK referendum on the European constitution, it would be inconceivable for there to be no Scottish breakdown of the vote.

"There was, after all, a Scottish result for the referendum on European Community membership in 1975.  And in the 1997 Scottish parliament referendum, the votes were counted on a local authority basis.

"There will be a distinctive debate in Scotland on the European constitution, which requires a distinctive Scottish result at the conclusion of the referendum campaign."

Speaking on Monday, Salmond said the government's apparent U-turn on the issue of a poll was "extremely welcome, but it must be more than a political ploy to get Labour through the European and general elections".

"And Tony Blair will need to get the constitution into a form that is capable of winning the support of Scotland," he added.

"In particular, the clause making fisheries an 'exclusive competence' of the EU must be renegotiated, given the disaster of the common fisheries policy."