The report explores six options Welsh top-up fees considered

The Rees Commission's interim report put forward six options, but will not recommend one until next month.

Welsh Education Minister Jane Davidson confirmed a pledge to rule out top-up fees until 2007 at the earliest, but said there was "much food for thought".

The main opposition parties reiterated their objections to top-up fees.

The options proposed by the panel have strengths and weaknesses, but may also have unintended consequences Education Minister Jane Davidson

Ms Davidson asked Professor Teresa Rees of Cardiff University to chair the group looking at higher education funding in Wales after the assembly gained new powers in 2004.

The interim report published on Thursday detailed half-a-dozen choices, all involving fees.

They ranged from the status quo of annual tuition fees of �1,200, up to a fixed �3,000 fee.

NUS Wales president James Knight, who wants abolition of fees, said society should pay for higher education benefiting everyone.

Prof Rees says her group's task was 'extremely challenging'

He said: "[People] still need doctors, they still need teachers, and those are people who have gone through education".

"The view NUS Wales and I myself take is that higher education benefits society as a whole and so it should be society that pays."

Bethan Jenkins, president of the students' union at Aberystwyth, said: "The report has been very limited in its vision.

"It seems to me that they're offering to take small steps (to improve things) but are too willing to work to stay within the existing system."

Dr David Halton, vice-chancellor of the University of Glamorgan in Treforest, said the issue needed to be looked at "holistically".

"Maintenance costs have to be considered very hard and I believe for our students, many of whom come from disadvantaged families, that will be a bigger issue than tuition fees paid when they are employed."

Labour Education Minister Jane Davidson: "We have made the commitment that there will be no variable fees in Wales during the lifetime of the assembly.

"We will keep that commitment. The report reflects the complexity of the issues and emphasises the need for the assembly to make careful and considered decisions on the way forward.

"The options proposed by the panel have strengths and weaknesses, but may also have unintended consequences. With the group's help, we need to identify all of these before making final decisions."

Plaid Cymru education spokeswoman Janet Ryder: "Plaid Cymru believe that the education system should be funded by the state at all levels to ensure people study the courses they are able to, and not just those courses they can afford to study.

"We've always believed that the state should be paying for education at whatever level. A properly-funded state education system benefits society."

Conservative assembly leader Nick Bourne: "There is an urgent need for action to prevent the haemorrhaging of top Welsh academics and students to English universities.

"Jane Davidson is a poor man's Nero, fiddling while Welsh universities burn and delaying difficult decisions until after the general election.

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Peter Black: "A Liberal Democrat government would abolish tuition fees and allocate a further �1.5bn to higher education.

"Labour have broken their promises from the start and have delivered only mountainous debts to students."