Mr Kennedy says Thursday will not be a Lib Dem "high watermark"

In his party's last major election rally, he is predicting the Lib Dems will win "significantly more" seats.

Mr Kennedy says Tony Blair is so worried about the Lib Dem threat that he is spreading "pathetic scare stories" about the party.

Those words came after Mr Blair derided Lib Dem drugs policy as "crackers". The Tories have attacked their tax plans.

No numbers

The Lib Dems used their rally at a London theatre to parade recent defectors to their cause as they try to squeeze votes from both their main rivals.

Veteran former Labour MP Brian Sedgemore and Amanda Harland, who was a Tory candidate six months ago, both addressed Lib Dem activists.

The Lib Dems are not forecasting how many more seats they can win - they say they genuinely do not know.

It is too late for Tony Blair to now hide from his record Charles Kennedy

Mr Kennedy is saying: "As we enter the last lap of this campaign it is now clear that the Liberal Democrats are set to go into the next parliament with significantly more MPs and with the highest level of voter support for a generation," he is saying.

"We set no ceiling on our ambitions as a party. We are clearly set for a further major advance on Thursday.

"But I am determined this will not be the high watermark of Liberal Democrat or electoral success. It will be a further staging post - an important staging post - in our upward progress as a party."

Scare tactics

Mr Kennedy is dismissing the Conservatives as "the party of the past" who cannot win the election.

And he says Mr Blair is realising how attractive Lib Dem policies were to voters.

"He has resorted to running pathetic scare stories urging people not to vote Lib Dem to avoid letting the Tories in," he is saying.

Michael Howard has attacked Lib Dem tax plans

"Leaving aside the complete implausibility of the claim, what a sad indictment of eight-years of this government.

"They are reduced to making unfounded claims about their opponents rather than having the confidence to stand on their record.

"But it is too late for Tony Blair to now hide from his record."

Mr Kennedy is arguing that Iraq had "seriously undermined" Mr Blair's authority and the prime minister will be a "lame duck" if he wins the election.

Earlier, the Lib Dem leader took the election fight to the Tory leader's Folkestone seat.

The party is targeting Michael Howard's 5,907 majority in the Kent seat, where the Lib Dem leader went on a walkabout.

Mr Howard has said Lib Dem plans to replace council tax with a local income tax would hit hard working Britons.

And Mr Blair has attacked the party's policy on drugs, saying it would decriminalise cannabis and keep people caught in possession of heroin and crack cocaine out of prison.

The Lib Dems say they are only proposing to support Labour's reclassification of cannabis from a class B to C - the move which Labour now say they are reconsidering.

But Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy said his party was "nothing other than tough" on drugs, with plans to jail drug dealers, more police and more drug rehabilitation.