Jim Wallace: "Greater clarification"

Parents would still have the right to reasonably chastise their children but there will be more restrictions on them, said Mr Wallace.

At present children are protected from "unreasonable chastisement", but the proposals will help courts to decide what is reasonable punishment.

The proposals, set to be included in the new Criminal Justice Bill, will be set out in a white paper in October.

But the plans have divided children's groups.

Childminders welcomed the proposals as a step in the right direction, but children's groups argued that they did not go far enough.

The Scottish Childminding Association director Anne McNellan said: "This is very admirable, although it's a bit sad there needs to be a law.

"In lots of ways having a law could be considered a bit extreme but we don't think smacking is a good way to discipline children."

We want to see a ban on physical punishment to every child

Children First spokeswoman

However, Susan Elsley of Save the Children, said: "We believe that they do not go far enough.

"Although the executive has moved from its past legal position on the punishment of children, it is not going for a complete ban which is what we are looking for.

"We believe that children should have the same protection under the law, from assault, as adults.

"We find it unacceptable in Scottish society for one adult to hit another so we should say it is equally unacceptable for an adult to hit a child."

A spokeswoman for Children First said: "We want to see a ban on physical punishment to every child, not just children under the age of three, what about those aged four - are we saying it is okay to hit them?

"They are just as vulnerable, so this is just not right."

NSPCC policy director, Phillip Noyes, said: "Parents should never cross the line and hit babies or toddlers. And this should be the case across the UK.

"An adult hitting a child of any age is not right and there are much better ways to discipline children. The Scottish proposals move us one step closer to the goal of full legal protection for all children in all parts of the UK."

Unveiling the proposals Mr Wallace said: "The primary consideration in decisions about children is the welfare of the child.

"While we believe that parents should have the rights to set the grounds for the discipline of their children, we felt there was a strong need for greater clarification of the law as to what is defined 'reasonable' punishment."

Corporal punishment

The minister said courts needed to consider the nature of the punishment and the circumstances surrounding it.

He defended the decision to seek a ban on the physical punishment of children up to and including the age of two.

Mr Wallace said: "Up to this age, it is very doubtful that a child would understand why he or she was being punished and if the child was in any imminent danger it should be possible for an adult to restrain or remove the child from danger rather than punish them."

The SNP's Mike Russell is backing the move

The SNP's education spokesman Mike Russell said his party would support the proposals.

He said: "Both European law and United Nation's conventions are rightly strong in seeking to prevent any abuse of children, and the measures announced today by Jim Wallace, if sadly necessary, will have the support of the SNP.

But the Scottish Conservatives were less agreeable and criticised the executive for taking a "misconceived and unnecessary" step.

The party's justice spokesman Lord James Douglas Hamilton, said: "Jim Wallace should resist his apparently insatiable desire to legislate, and instead choose to trust the good sense of the courts which are best placed to determine what is reasonable and what is unreasonable when it comes to the disciplining of children.

"The executive must begin to appreciate that it is not always necessary to legislate in order to cure what it perceives as the ills of our society."