Sara Payne has campaigned for harsher sentences

Home Office minister Lord Falconer made the pledge at a conference attended by the parents of Sarah Payne and Damilola Taylor.

A code of practice and a commissioner for victims were being proposed in new legislation, he said.

He assured those attending Saturday's event that their voices - and those of murder victims - would be heard more clearly in the criminal justice system.

The conference was being held to discuss proposed changes to the Criminal Justice Bill, which include imposing full life sentences for paedophiles who abduct and kill.

The victim's voice needs to be heard much more than it is at the moment Lord Falconer, Home Office Minister

Sara Payne, the mother of eight-year-old Sarah and Richard Taylor, the father of Damilola, 10, joined more than 100 delegates at the conference held by the North of England Victims Association (Neva) in South Shields, south Tyneside.

Afterwards Lord Falconer said it had been an "emotional meeting" which had provided a platform for "the voices of people who have not been heard for a long time".

"The victim's voice needs to be heard much more than it is at the moment," he said.

"The court process and what happens afterwards has got to reflect the needs of victims. That doesn't mean unfairness to offenders but the court and the system need to be aware of the needs of victims."

A planned independent review of how coroners' courts worked would also benefit bereaved families, he added.

Damilola Taylor's father Richard was among the delegates

Earlier, Lord Falconer spoke to BBC News about the case of paedophile Michael Wheeler, who was sentenced to three years in jail for sexually abusing two 13-year-old girls he met in an internet chat room.

The sentence handed down to Wheeler, 36, who pleaded guilty to 11 sex offences against the girls, attracted heavy criticism on Friday.

It comes as the Sexual Offences Bill, containing a much tougher sentencing framework for such crimes, is still making its way through Parliament.

"The sentence was too low, but not I suspect because of what the judge did but because the maximum sentence available was not high enough," Lord Falconer said.

He denied the government had "lagged behind" in making the changes and said: "It is not something you can do overnight, it required a substantial amount of consultation and we brought forward a substantial series of proposals for reform."

Funding plea

Delegates at Saturday's conference said they felt "forgotten" as "secondary victims" of murderers.

They also asked for government funding for victims' groups, like Neva.

But Lord Falconer said he had not come to the event to promise them money, adding that the Victim Support organisation was well funded.

Sarah Payne, eight, disappeared near her grandparents' home in July 2000

Sara Payne said she was pleased the minister had attended the event, adding: "Hopefully he will take on board what we have told him."

She has campaigned for tougher sentencing since her daughter was killed by convicted sex offender Roy Whiting in July 2000. Whiting was jailed for life in December 2001.

When Home Secretary David Blunkett announced the proposed new measures contained in the Criminal Justice Bill last month, he said they would mean punishments for murderers would better fit their crimes.

These include the principle that anyone who abducts and murders a child should never be released from prison.

The plans have come in for criticism from some members of the judiciary and civil liberties campaigners, questioning the intervention of politicians.

June Richardson, the mother of Martin Brown who was murdered by 11-year-old Mary Bell in 1968, said the government had "a long way to go" to satisfy victims' families.

After the conference she said she thought it "disgusting" that no funding had been offered for victims' families.

"Victim Support gets all the funding but it cannot help people like us," she said.

"They don't have the understanding because they haven't been through what we have."