By Nick Horton BBC Wales News Online at the Welsh Conservatives' conference

Dr Fox said Blair had lost voters' trust

Conservative Party co-chairman Liam Fox has launched an attack on Tony Blair at the Welsh Tories' conference in Cardiff.

Speaking at the Millennium Stadium, Dr Fox called him "a disappointment of historic proportions" as a prime minister.

He told delegates Mr Blair was guilty of feebleness and failed delivery.

And he had a "seemingly irreparable broken trust" with voters, he added.

Shadow Welsh Secretary Bill Wiggin claimed Labour's handling of the NHS in Welsh had had "catastrophic" effects, with waiting lists up 83% since 1999.

Mr Wiggin also reaffirmed that a Conservative Westminster government would hold a referendum on the future of the Welsh assembly, including the option to scrap it.

Assembly building

The Conservatives, who became the first political party on Saturday to hold a conference at the home of Welsh rugby, are also seeking a revival along the lines of the national XV, currently sweeping all before them in the Six Nations tournament.

The Tories have had no Welsh MPs since 1997, but are hoping to build on what they claim are the failures of Labour governments in both Westminster and Cardiff Bay.

Dr Fox said Welsh NHS waiting lists had jumped despite large investment, while the cost of the new assembly building had reached �67m, compared to the original �10m estimate. That, he said, was "in the true style of devolution".

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He focused much of his fire on the prime minister personally, and accused Labour of an "indecent fixation" with previous Tory Westminster governments.

"You'd think Labour hadn't been in power for the last eight years," he told party delegates.

There was, he said, a "casual disregard" for the truth at the top of the Labour Party. "There's no point blaming Mandelson or Alastair Campbell - it comes from Tony Blair," he added.

"It's more in sorrow than anger that I say Tony Blair has been a disappointment of historic proportions."

Earlier, Mr Wiggin, MP for Leominster, said Labour's "only approach is to throw money at problems, even if it cannot deliver the solution".

A poll for BBC Wales earlier this week suggested that health was the main concern of voters as a general election nears, and Mr Wiggin said Welsh waiting lists were a "horror".

"Patients are left outside as ambulances queue up, new wards lie unopened, and technology lies unused because of staff and funding shortages.

"Medical staff admit to being desperate and facing situations the worst it has ever been. So much for Labour's '24 hours to save the NHS'."