Attack on Tony Blair: Welsh Liberal Democrat leader, Lembit Opik

Lembit Opik told his party's Welsh Spring Conference in Swansea that the Lib Dems were justified in having doubts over military action but supporting British troops.

Mr Opik said that such a stance was not opportunistic.

The true opportunists, he said, were the Prime Minster, Tony Blair, and Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, for having dared to question the party's integrity on the issue.

Mr Opik also attacked US President George Bush and Tony Blair for going to war without having achieved a second UN resolution.

Policies

Such a move was more reminiscent of the wild west, not the global village, he said.

"It's a great pity the prime minister has personalised this issue," he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has defend voting in the Commons against the war

"He and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw have claimed Liberal Democrats are opportunistic about the war.

"In other words, that we are playing to the public for political gain - how dare he say that."

The MP for Montgomeryshire did not confine himself to foreign affairs.

He reminded delegates of what he said the Lib Dems had achieved in government at assembly level.

Free school milk, student grants and more doctors and nurses were all party manifesto commitments and such policies were proof that his party was on the march, he said.

'Khaki election'

Despite the upbeat note on which he ended, there was no getting away from the war.

Sunday's meeting in Swansea, was the last conference by the four main parties before the Welsh Assembly elections in May and in many respects there was a sense of stepping into the electoral unknown.

The four main parties worked out their electoral strategies weeks ago, but now there is a growing feeling that a war-time election could quickly render those plans redundant.