Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith has used the Welsh party's conference to fire the starting gun on next year's Welsh Assembly elections.

He told delegates at Llandudno, north Wales, next year's poll would be "a referendum on Labour's record."

He again sought to play up the 'caring' Tory front unveiled at a community college in Hackney on Tuesday.

French officials want to close the Sangatte camp

And he said he would abolish Wales' five health authorities in favour of a nationwide health commission.

The visit came as Mr Duncan Smith called on the UK Government to reject an in-take of any of the 1,300 asylum seekers at France's Sangatte refugee camp, set for closure.

Writing in the Daily Mail, he said the camp had become a "staging post for people waiting to break the law and enter the UK illegally."

But the Tory leader rejected journalists' further immigration questions while visiting a north Llandudno day centre for adults with learning disabilities.

Public services

Mr Duncan Smith's conference speech kicks off his party's campaign for the 2003 Welsh Assembly election.

He claimed the Lib/Lab-led assembly coalition administration had wasted time and money while Plaid Cymru was an "irrelevance."

We must be a party that speaks for vulnerable people as well as for the rest of society

Iain Duncan Smith

His assembly manifesto will contain measures to support families, charities and social entrepreneurs and deliver "real change" in public services, Mr Duncan Smith said.

And it will include a plan to replace Wales' five regional health authorities will an all-Wales health commission to keep politicians out of running the NHS.

That contradicts Health Minister Jane Hutt's plan to create 37 health boards across Wales.

And he admitted the race for seats at Cardiff Bay would offer proof of how much his party had changed.

"The assembly elections must be the springboard for our fight back to win back Welsh seats in Parliament," he said.

"Wales has always been my priority."

He repeated the message the Conservative party wants to champion the cause of vulnerable people.

And he told delegates the party would trust people to choose what is best for education and their lives.

'Caring' party

"We must be a party that speaks for vulnerable people as well as for the rest of society, and we are becoming that party again," he told delegates.

"It is not enough for us to wait for Labour to lose the trust of the people.

"We have to ensure that people trust us again. We have to be a credible alternative.

Michael Howard will call for better public services

"Thanks to Nick Bourne and his team, we are providing that alternative."

Assembly Tory leader Mr Bourne was due to address the conference on Saturday.

UK Shadow Chancellor Michael Howard told delegates the electorate is fed up with waiting for improvements in public services.

"Those in the inner cities who can't escape from the failing school or the hard-pressed hospital or the crime-ridden estate..." said the Llanelli-born former Home Secretary.

"They did vote for Labour, and they are still waiting.

"The Conservatives have to show people that there is an alternative to waiting. We must offer them an alternative."

But Wales for the Tories is a barren land, without a single Conservative parliamentary seat in the country and one Welsh Assembly constituency seat.