Andy Kerr said an action plan would be published

Andy Kerr said an action plan would be published to help NHS boards speed up the improvements which had been made.

Both the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Conservative Party have blamed the executive for failing to fulfil its promise.

Under the targets set by ministers, all urgent cancer cases should be treated within two months by the end of 2005.

Figures for the last three months of 2004 have been published after a freedom of information request.

Cancer networks

They showed that 57% of those diagnosed with bowel cancer during that period were treated within 62 days.

The figure rose to 68.5% for lung cancer, 85% for breast cancer and 86% for ovarian cancer.

Scotland has three cancer networks covering the north, south and west.

I am soon to announce new waiting time standards for diagnostic tests which will assist in driving down waiting times for cancer treatment Andy Kerr Health Minister

In the south and west 93% of patients given an urgent breast cancer referral were treated within two months.

However, that figure fell to 56% in the north - and there were also wide differences within the region.

The combined figure for Grampian, Orkney and Shetland was just 30%, while NHS Highland managed to start treatment on 90% of patients within two months.

Mr Kerr admitted the two-month cancer treatment target was a "stretching" one.

"We recognise it will be difficult to meet," he said.

Action plan

"Waiting times are falling, but I want to see boards accelerate these improvements.

"We are working with NHS boards to deliver the target and will shortly publish a detailed action plan to help them achieve this."

He said the Scottish Executive had invested �150m in cancer services since 2001.

Targets say all cancer cases should be treated within two months

And he added: "I am soon to announce new waiting time standards for diagnostic tests which will assist in driving down waiting times for cancer treatment."

However, SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon said the figures showed the executive was failing to meet its targets for treating patients with cancer.

"For urgent cancer cases the time taken to be seen for treatment is a matter of life and death, but some health boards are not even collecting the required information on how long people have to wait," she said.

"It simply beggars belief that only now is the executive looking to publish an 'action plan' geared to resolving this crisis.

"Why have they not acted prior to the release of these damning reports to ensure that cancer victims get the support they need?"

She said First Minister Jack McConnell should take personal responsibility for the situation and "sort it out now".

'Not getting better'

The SNP also called for an examination of the "huge regional disparities" in treatment rates.

ScottishTory health spokeswoman Nanette Milne said the figures suggested the two-month guarantee appeared set to become "yet another failed health promise" from the executive.

Dr Milne said: "If cancer is the area where the executive is making its biggest inroads, as the first minister claims, then that is a very sorry statement about the rest of our health service.

"For too long the people of Scotland have suffered and been lied to about our health service.

"The plain fact is that it is not getting better.

"To add insult to injury, cancer deaths in England are down 50% on Scotland since 1996.