RE-ELECTING Labour was the only way to guarantee "fair’’ funding for Wales's public services, the party said when it launched its Welsh manifesto today.

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said there would have to be "belt tightening’’, but claimed Labour's rivals could not match its offer on paying for devolved services such as schools and the NHS.

Labour said it would ensure the economic recovery and repeated a warning of "savage cuts’’ under the Conservatives that would imperil flagship Welsh Assembly Government schemes, such as free primary school breakfasts.

Standing shoulder to shoulder in Cardiff, Mr Hain and First Minister Carwyn Jones pledged to work together on delivering a referendum on full law-making powers for the Assembly.

Mr Hain said a deal with the Treasury - first announced last November - meant Wales would not lose out under the Barnett formula which determines the size of the devolved budget, currently more than £15 billion.

The Assembly Government-appointed Holtham Commission last year said Wales risked losing up to £8.5 billion over 10 years through so-called convergence between spending in Wales and England.

Labour's manifesto points out that Wales receives £114 for every £100 spent in England on devolved services, adding: "We will provide fair funding for Wales, so that at least a similar standard of public services can be provided in Wales as is provided in comparable parts of the UK.’’ A fourth-term Labour government would "make sure Wales is protected’’ during discussions about future public spending held in Whitehall over the summer, Mr Hain said.

"We have made it clear that there's a fair funding guarantee for Wales that no other party has promised or can promise,’’ he said.

"It has been negotiated with the Treasury. We know that we can deliver it.’’ Plaid Cymru sets out demands to Labour and Tories PLAID CYMRU said today that an increased state pension, more Treasury funding for Wales and a withdrawal of UK troops from Afghanistan would be among the demands it would put to Labour and the Conservatives in a hung Parliament.

They were included in the Welsh nationalists' seven key policies when they published their General Election manifesto.

Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones, Wales's Deputy First Minister, said his party wanted to defend the most vulnerable in society from cuts in public spending.

At the manifesto launch in Cardiff, Mr Jones said: "These priorities are determined by the values we hold in the party to protect the communities of Wales against the London cuts.

"The choice between Labour cuts or Tory cuts is no choice at all.’’ He said Plaid's programme, which would remove unclaimed pension credits and introduce a higher "living pension’’, was fully-costed.

Plaid is aiming to increase its tally of three MPs and plans to create a "Celtic bloc’’ in Westminster with the SNP that would negotiate a better deal for Wales and Scotland if no party wins an outright majority on May 6.

Mr Jones said Plaid was willing to talk to the Conservatives and Labour - as it did after inconclusive devolved elections to the Welsh Assembly in 2007.

"If they are not prepared to talk to us, so be it. But these are the demands we are setting out,’’ he said.