People across Wales will get the chance to turn their entrepreneurship dreams into reality, Chancellor Gordon Brown has said.

He told the Labour Party conference at Blackpool he will create 2,000 "enterprise areas" in the UK's less affluent regions, helping start up hundreds of new firms.

Almost half of Wales' council wards are likely to be given the designation in the detail of November's pre-Budget report.

Enterprise activity

6% of people involved in enterprise Wales 26th of 31 enterprising nations Few firms want more than 50 staff 'Business angel' activity just 0.2% 8.8% of men are entrepreneurs Source: GEM 2001 & UW Bangor

Mr Brown said it would help cut red tape, making it easier to start up and expand businesses.

"For every three small firms creating jobs in the richest areas there is just one creating fewer jobs in the poorest areas," he told delegates.

"Let us modernise our attitudes to enterprise as an engine of not just wealth creation but opportunity for all."

It was the sugar in the pill of a conference otherwise dominated by opposition to private finance initiative (PFI) plans for commercial cash in public services.

But the announcement caught on the hop First Minister Rhodri Morgan and his Wales Labour Party, who had not been informed.

It is likely that also meant the Welsh Development Agency - Wales' prime economic arm - was in the dark.

The new zones will help the tough task of creating an entrepreneurial culture where just 6% of people are involved in enterprise.

Monday at the conference also saw Labour re-brand its group dedicated to promoting south Wales' valleys - as the party looks to win back its core support.

Formed last November, the "Valleys First" group of MPs and AMs in the area was renamed "Valleys Forward" at the Labour Party conference in Blackpool on Monday.

Plaid control Rhondda in the Welsh Assembly

Labour lost valleys stranglehold when Plaid Cymru took Rhondda and Islwyn at the inaugural Welsh Assembly election in 1999.

With eight months to the next election, the group is a flagship leading a move to regain heartland support.

Valleys Forward was formed as an umbrella under which Labour's ten MPs and AMs in the area unite to lobby for the entire region, which shares many common problems.

They believe Caerphilly, Aberavon, Ogmore, Rhondda and Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney are disadvantaged and would be better served by a single voice at Westminster.

The re-launch of the group underlines Labour's eagerness to regain core support in communities which have traditionally always turned out to vote red.