By Vaughan Roderick BBC Welsh affairs editor

Sir Menzies Campbell replaced Charles Kennedy as leader

With a new UK leader in place the party will try and re-focus on Welsh issues as they prepare to fight next year's assembly elections.

In theory, at least, next year's election should be one in which the Liberal Democrats have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

It's hard to imagine a scenario where the party would lose seats.

With some expecting the UK party to move to the right the Lib Dems could find themselves in a three-way fight for anti-Labour votes

And following their gains in the 2004 local elections and the 2005 general election the leadership will hope to make gains, enabling them to lose the tag of perennial also-rans in assembly elections.

The choice of Wrexham as the conference venue is significant.

The party has made significant progress in recent years in anglicised urban Wales. If it is to break through at assembly level, places such as Wrexham and Bridgend - where the party runs the local authorities - are crucial.

The difficulty the Lib Dems face is that historically they appear to underperform in assembly and European elections. Polling evidence suggests that Lib Dem supporters are less likely to turn out and vote than the backers of the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru.

The party's ceaseless claims that they are "winning here" and the publication of endless bar charts claiming "it's a two-horse race" failed to shift the party out of fourth place in both the 1999 and 2003 assembly elections.

Jenny Willott was one of the two new Welsh Lib Dem MPs in 2005

A confusing and unsuccessful attempt to attract "list votes" from Labour supporters in 2003 in unlikely to be repeated.

With some expecting the UK party to move to the right the Lib Dems could find themselves in a three-way fight for anti-Labour votes.

Favourite themes

In constituency terms only Ceredigion (and, just possibly, Swansea West) appear to be realistic targets for the party, although constituency gains for the Conservatives or Plaid could help the party gain additional list seats.

The conference itself will revisit some favourite Lib Dem themes: electoral reform for local council elections, renewable energy and the introduction of a local income tax.

The highlight, though, is likely to be a visit by Sir Menzies Campbell, his first as leader to a Welsh Lib Dem conference.

Most of his AMs backed other candidates for the leadership, but appear willing to give the new leader the benefit of the doubt for the time being.

It's likely, though, that any attempt by the new leader to move the party further to the right would meet resistance from Wales.