Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that the Scottish National Party will honour its commitment to increasing police numbers in Scotland.

The deputy first minister told MSPs that her party would meet its manifesto pledge to deliver 1,000 more police officers.

Speaking in Holyrood on Thursday, Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander said that next week's budget would see spending rise to record levels and called on Sturgeon to "make good" on the SNP promise on police numbers.

Sturgeon described this year's comprehensive spending review settlement as "the worst for Scotland since devolution", but insisted that the SNP would deliver the extra officers "within that tight financial settlement".

She said her party would recruit and redeploy officers "out from behind desks and onto the streets of Scotland because that's where the people want them to be".

However Alexander accused the deputy first minister of "running scared" in the debate, and said the SNP had "no intention of keeping their manifesto promise".

Nicol Stephen, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, asked if Sturgeon would "stand up for her personal pledge and deliver for the local community... or is she going to flip?"

Repeating her pledge to "deliver for the people of Scotland", Sturgeon said: "I think we know who has flipped and flopped - these words were invented to describe the Lib Dems."