The fees debate has sparked protest in England

Jack McConnell's statement came at Holyrood Question Time, where the SNP demanded to know whether he saw fees as "good or bad".

MSPs had earlier debated the issue of the fees change being planned for English universities.

The Scottish National Party's Fiona Hyslop called on Scottish MPs to vote against the Higher Education Bill.

It is a controversial plan by the Labour Government and will be debated in the House of Commons next week.

Mr McConnell said: "It is impossible for me to predict what might take place in this Parliament in terms of decisions in the years to come, in relation to top-up tuition fees or any other matter.

"But can I make one thing perfectly clear today.

"There will be no top-up fees for Scottish higher education students as long as I am First Minister, elected by this chamber to represent this country."

'Absolutely reeks'

The SNP's plea to MPs was slated as political opportunism by Enterprise Minister Jim Wallace.

Pointing to the SNP MSPs, he said: "If Westminster passed a motion telling us how to vote the biggest howls would come from that direction, so their hypocrisy absolutely reeks."

But Ms Hyslop said the SNP would always stand up for the Scottish interest "wherever and whenever that interest is threatened".

She added: "The SNP MPs at Westminster will be voting in the Bill next week because until we have the financial independence and powers to compete fairly with England and the rest of the world it is our duty and responsibility to do so."

We should not be telling our Westminster colleagues that they are doing wrong Gordon Jackson

However, MSPs voted against Ms Hyslop's motion by 71 votes to 37, with seven abstentions.

The debate on Thursday follows warnings that increased tuition fees in England could lead to an "exodus" of academics from Scotland's universities.

Lord Dearing, the man who first proposed tuition fees, said he supported Tony Blair's plans but warned they present a "tough issue" which Holyrood politicians "must face".

If the extra money raised in England is invested in teaching salaries, he said "an exodus of academics from Scotland" may follow.

And he believes it could also lead to an influx of English students into Scotland, in an effort to avoid fees.

Tuition fees were introduced after the Dearing Committee's report on higher education in 1997.

One surprise supporter of top-up fees during the Holyrood debate was Glasgow Govan Labour MSP and practising QC Gordon Jackson.

Way forward

He said: "I think it's a fair and rational method of dealing with the funding gap and those who instinctively, and I may say sometimes irrationally, oppose it need to tell us what the alternative is."

As MSPs shouted out "income tax" Mr Jackson added: "Of course, one answer is general taxation but in the real world even if you do tax those of us who do earn more, that's not a better way forward.

Lord Dearing said the fees issue was a tough one

"We should not be telling our Westminster colleagues that they are doing wrong. We should be supporting them in what they're doing and if there's a funding problem resulting we should be prepared to follow them."

During his questioning on the matter, Mr McConnell insisted that former education minister Sam Galbraith was not speaking for him when he claimed fees had not been abolished but simply deferred in Scotland.

Lib Dem MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine Mike Rumbles insisted that there were no tuition fees in Scotland and stressed that the endowment scheme was used exclusively to help students.

Independent MSP for Falkirk West Dennis Canavan accused Labour at Westminster of doing a U-turn on top-up fees and warned that the policy would throw "a millstone of debt" round the necks of poorer students.