The demands cover pensions

Among the ideas being examined by a Lib Dem working group on the issue is getting pensioners to offer online tutor groups.

In a speech on Thursday, Mr Kennedy said the politics of the coming decades would be dominated by the baby boomers.

He also highlighted care home closures, saying the pressures were "intense".

Voting pressure

Mr Kennedy's speech to the annual review of Friends of the Elderly comes after a pensioners' campaign group launched its own manifesto.

The National Pensioners' Convention says political parties cannot afford to ignore the so-called grey vote.

These are not people who will grow old quietly Charles Kennedy

The Lib Dem leader said 40% of Britain's population would be aged over 50 by 2020 - compared with 32% now.

There were 11m "baby boomers" moving from work into retirement.

"This is a generation which reached adulthood in the Sixties, and is by nature individualistic, demanding and assertive," he said.

"These are not people who will grow old quietly."

Barter system

A change of mindset was needed, with elderly people seen as a resource, he argued.

"We have to find new ways of re-engaging people as they retire, to make sure their skills and energy are not lost to society and to the economy," he said.

"We must respond to the challenge of the 'new old' by opening up opportunities for part-time working and volunteering."

Lib Dem MEP Nick Clegg has headed a group working for the last three months on the issue and has just given Mr Kennedy its first findings.

A party spokesman said the group was looking at the US idea of "time banks", where people donate their time giving services in return for "credits" which they use to purchase services or products from other bank members.

But it was also examining whether new technology could be used so retired people could give tutor groups on their skill areas on the internet.

Care fears

Other areas being tackled by Mr Clegg include combating age discrimination; giving the NHS a new focus so it acts as a prevention service as well as an emergency service; and managing the process of retirement.

Mr Kennedy attacked the government's record on care for the elderly, saying care home closures had outstripped new registrations for the fourth year in a row.

"As the demand is rising, the number of beds is falling," he said.

It would not take much for the care sector to move from "break even" to breakdown, he argued.

Mr Kennedy added that only the Lib Dems have pledged to provide free person care based on need and had proved they could pay for it.

The government says it is fairer to spend the �1bn cost of providing free personal care on improving services for all older people and to delay, or even avoid, the need for them to enter residential or nursing home care.

It says seven out of 10 people already have some or all of their personal care costs paid by the state and so a change would only benefit the better-off.