We refuse to lurch between budgets from one short-term fix to another

Chancellor Gordon Brown

"But is precisely because there is volatility in oil prices that we should resist any short-term changes in policy.. we should insist on steering a long term course of stability."

He said that the EU will continue to pressure Opec to raise production and cut their prices.

But he said the government would not endorse a short-term solution to the problem.

"We refuse to lurch between budgets from one short-term fix to another," Mr Brown said.

As Mr Brown spoke, around a dozen lorries gathered around the Scottish Exhibition Centre to add their voices to the protests.

Full employment

Mr Brown also called for union backing for his campaign for full employment, including pay restraint through multi-year bargaining deals.

He was warmly welcomed by delegates as he pledged that the government would do its part to boost investment and training.

The key to higher prosperity is not inflation-busting pay rises but higher productivity

Chancellor Gordon Brown

Mr Brown wants employers and trade unions to work together to improve productivity and close the UK's 30% productivity gap with its competitors.

"It is not by default but by design we have the lowest long-term interest rates in history. It is not by chance by but choice that we have 28 million citizens in work," he told the delegates. .

Mr Brown argues that the UK's current economic stability provides a chance which it can either "squander in a return to stop-go and short-termism" or be used as a platform to drive up productivity and employment.

"Building from one million more jobs, with the strength to take tough decisions to achieve stability, this is a time of opportunity for our country and the prize for all of us is great - not just full employment for a year or two but full employment sustained for a generation," he said.

"And to achieve full employment we will first need discipline and to entrench an anti-inflation culture of stability. The key to higher prosperity is not inflation-busting pay rises but higher productivity," the Chancellor asserted.

"Opportunity and prosperity that enriches not just a few but everyone, that is our vision," he said.

Splits on the euro

Earlier, criticism of government policy on the pound had emerged during an acrimonious debate on TUC policy towards the euro. .

John Edmonds, the general secretary of the GMB union, told delegates at the TUC's annual conference in Glasgow that membership of the euro "would be a suicide note for most of the economy" unless the value of the pound came down.

Mr Edmonds said that adjusting the value of the pound was far more important than any of the five economic tests proposed by the government before it will recommend euro membership to the country.

Mr Edmonds also called on the government to ensure a "social dialogue" by extending rights to consultation between workers and employers.

Ken Jackson, of the AEEU engineering union, said that joining the euro was about safeguarding jobs, especially those of the 1 million workers employed by foreign multinationals in the UK.

"There is no doubt we would lose jobs if we don't join the euro," he said.

But Bill Morris of the Transport Workers Union emphasised the need for an informed debate.

"The British people cannot be bullied and cannot be bounced. There is no majority for the euro - because we have a strong economy and a stable economy," he said.

The TUC's biggest union, Unison, which represents public sector workers, is opposing any pro-euro campaign, because it fears that it would lead to restrictions on public spending.