Plaid Cymru have announced their former leader Dafydd Wigley is to return to front line politics after a break of more than a year.

Mr Wigley will once again become a member of the party's shadow cabinet team in the Welsh Assembly as he takes on the finance portfolio.

Ieuan Wyn Jones: Workload lightened

The position has previously been held by the current party leader Ieuan Wyn Jones.

Mr Wigley has been on the backbenches since stepping down as party leader due to ill-health in May last year.

He said it was always his intention to take a year out from front-line politics and then reassess the situation.

It has been a bruising year for Plaid who have endured a number of clashes over their Welsh language policy.

There are some senior party figures who would welcome Mr Wigley back as leader.

We have got to do better for Wales and we have got to show that we can do so

Former Plaid leader Dafydd Wigley

But he has insisted that he has no intention of standing against Mr Wyn Jones either for the post of party president or of leader of the Plaid Cymru Group in the assembly.

Mr Wigley said: "My energies are not going to be used to speculate on improbable circumstances.

"My energies are going to be used to make sure that we put ourselves forward as Plaid Cymru over the period to 2003 as an alternative government to take over from this failing Liberal-Labour coalition.

"We have got to do better for Wales and we have got to show that we can do so."

Mr Wigley has said that he is confident that taking on the finance brief is the right move.

Medical advice

He said that not only has he had experience of the post but also it will relieve some of Ieuan Wyn Jones' workload.

The repositioning also avoids any further reshuffling of the shadow cabinet team.

Mr Wigley stepped down as party leader after receiving medical advice to reduce his workload.

He stayed on as MP and AM for Caernarfon, the seat which he has represented at Westminster since 1974.

But in June this year he handed over the mantle to Hywel Williams who gained the seat for Plaid in the general election.