Mr Darling said Scotland had been given a 'good deal'

The Scottish Government claimed that the deal announced in the pre-budget report was the worst since devolution.

Finance Secretary John Swinney said the SNP administration at Holyrood would now have to consider its own budget.

But Mr Darling said Scotland had got exactly what it was entitled to under the Barnett formula.

The annual Scottish budget will rise to �30bn in 2011 - more than double the level available to Labour First Minister Donald Dewar in the very first Scottish Executive in 1999.

The Treasury said this equated to an increase of an average annual rate of 1.8% over the next three years.

But First Minister Alex Salmond said the figures were misleading and that the true increase was 1.4%.

I don't think anyone can accuse anyone of short-changing Scotland Chancellor Alistair Darling Read Brian Taylor's blog

Mr Darling told BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "I understand perfectly why Alex Salmond, who is now quite clearly in difficulties over the promises that he made earlier this year, will seek to blame somebody else for his failures.

"The question is that surely with �30bn to spend, he could start to make improvements to health, to education and other areas that are so important for Scotland."

He added: "I would have thought that would have been more than adequate money.

"It's actually more than the Nationalists said they expected when they published their manifesto this year."

The chancellor went on: "I don't think anyone can accuse anyone of short-changing Scotland."

Mr Swinney rejected Mr Darling's claims that the settlement was "a good deal" for Scotland.

Speaking on the same programme, he said: "The key thing which is unavoidable in this financial settlement is the fact that we have the worst settlement since devolution.

Above inflation

"We go into the next financial year - when you strip out all the jiggery pokery the Treasury has been involved in - with an increase in our budget of 0.5%."

This compares with an 11.5% increase above inflation in 2003/04.

The new administration had been expecting �1.8bn over the three years in total, but claimed the real terms increase over this period was just �1.1bn.

"What we've got to do is look at the way we take forward our commitments," Mr Swinney added.

"We will do that as responsible government, but we have to recognise and people have to recognise in Scotland, a Chancellor of the Exchequer, representing an Edinburgh constituency, has just delivered an awful financial settlement for Scotland."

The Nationalists will now bring forward their own budget to Holyrood in the next few weeks, but Mr Swinney declined to speculate on the impact on services.

On Treasury figures, Scotland's "baseline" spending this year is just more than �26bn.

The increases will be �1.185bn in 2008/09, �2.340bn in 2009/10, and �3.725bn in 2010/11.

The Liberal Democrats attacked the SNP and reiterated its call for the Scottish Parliament to be given greater powers to raise its own revenue.