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She made the announcement after figures showed many health boards again failed to meet waiting time targets.

Ms Sturgeon said failure to treat at least 95% of cancer patients within two months was "simply not good enough".

Labour's health spokesman Andy Kerr said there was "nothing new" in Ms Sturgeon's statement.

He accused her of simply re-announcing decisions already made by the previous government.

The SNP has also pledged to speed up the abolition of so-called hidden waiting lists for medical treatment.

Worst performing

A cancer performance support team will now be sent to help cut waiting lists in Lanarkshire and Lothian.

The team of clinicians and officials had previously been based in Glasgow and Forth Valley, where they helped cancer performance improve significantly in the last year.

The 95% target should have been reached by December 2005, and Ms Sturgeon's Labour predecessor Andy Kerr, said in December last year that he wanted it to be met by April.

But waiting list figures issued on Tuesday showed the proportion of patients being treated within this deadline was just 84.7% across Scotland, an increase of 2.2% on the previous quarter.

Lanarkshire was the worst performing area with only 64.7% of cases being treated within the target time, a drop of nearly 5%.

The fact that cancer targets have not yet been met is simply not good enough Nicola Sturgeon Health secretary

While in Lothian the figure was 84.5%, a rise of 5.5% on the previous quarter. Only one health board, Shetland, met the target with a performance of 100%.

Giving health chiefs a public warning, Ms Sturgeon said: "The fact that cancer targets have not yet been met is simply not good enough.

"That is why today I am setting out my clear expectation that the NHS proceeds quickly and effectively to deliver on its cancer waiting time targets with a requirement that it be finally and fully delivered from the end of this year.

Ms Sturgeon said she had ordered weekly progress reports from all health boards to ensure they were on track to meet the targets.

NHS Lothian said that patient care was always its first priority and it was important to deliver the "best possible care in the shortest possible time".

A spokesperson added: "We have already made progress in reducing waiting times and we welcome the opportunity to work with the cancer support team to improve on this."

Scrap system

The board said that as the second largest in Scotland, it was a regional "centre of excellence" for cancer patients from a wide area.

Addressing the wider issue of waiting lists, Ms Sturgeon said Availability Status Codes (ASCs) were unfair, lacked transparency, and led to people waiting for lengthy periods.

The codes were introduced in June 2003 and are applied to patients in certain categories, like those who fail to show up for a hospital appointment, who cannot be treated because of medical complications, or whose condition is given low priority like tattoo removal.

There have been accusations that health chiefs have given some patients the codes simply so they do not have to be included in official waiting time figures.

The previous Labour and Liberal Democrat administration had pledged to scrap the ASC system by the end of this year, but they are still being used by local health authorities.

Nicola Sturgeon waiting times for cancer patients were too long

The latest figures, which cover the three months up to the end of March, showed there were more than 226,000 people on outpatient waiting lists, of whom more than 23,000 had an ASC.

There was a total of just under 85,000 people on in-patient or day case waiting lists, of whom just under 30,000 had an ASC.

Mr Kerr insisted that the Ms Sturgeon's target was the same he had set when he was health minister.

He added: "I also find it disappointing on a day where the statistics of the whole NHS in terms of performance have been put in the shadows by some sort of political minor manoeuvre by the health minister."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Ross Finnie welcomed the SNP's decision to honour the previous executive's pledge to scrap ASCs by the end of 2007.

Mr Finnie said: "I will be seeking assurances from the health secretary that she will allocate sufficient resources to enable health boards to remove ASCs, making the waiting times system more transparent and open but not unnecessarily bureaucratic."

Mary Scanlon, health spokeswoman for the Tories, said: "These dismal figures for the Highlands, Western Isles and Lanarkshire (65%) are well below the rest of Scotland where cancer patients have a better chance of faster treatment, and therefore a better chance of recovery."