The SNP's annual conference has opened in Aviemore, with leader Alex Salmond hailing "160 days of achievement" in government.

The Scottish nationalists were gathering at the resort for the three-day meeting on Friday for the first time since they won May's Holyrood elections.

The conference will concentrate on their plans for government, with every frontbench speaker set to make a ministerial announcement.

And first minister Salmond shrugged off this week's defeat for the minority administration in the Scottish Parliament, over the breaking of a manifesto pledge on police officers.

"Trust in the government at the present moment is sky high, as every opinion poll shows," he told STV's Politics Now programme.

"What we are arguing for is to make progress on these commitments over a four-year programme. Nobody expected us to do it over 160 days."

He added that "there will be an element of celebration" at the conference.

"The SNP has been knocking about for 73 years and this is the first time we have won an election, the first time delegates have assembled with the SNP in government," the party leader said.

"So I think a wee bit of celebration would be understood by the rest of Scotland. But each day will be marked by significant policy announcements and unlike previous conferences, this time we will be able to not just pass a motion but these will be announcements of what the SNP intends to do in government."

Deputy leader and health minister Nicola Sturgeon is expected to use her speech on Saturday to outline new plans to reduce NHS waiting times.

However she also told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that she would be highlighting the "unfair" spending settlement Scotland had received from the Westminster government.