A FRESH attempt to lift children out of poverty was unveiled today.

Ministers in Wales signed up to the Labour UK Government's target to eradicate child poverty by 2020.

But their latest set of plans, published five years after a previous strategy, aims to "ensure that no child or young person is disadvantaged by poverty’’.

Officials said the wording was meant to acknowledge that the Assembly Government in Cardiff cannot control all the relevant policy levers, including taxation and benefits.

The document, out for consultation today, is intended to reduce the number of children in workless households, raise skills levels to increase incomes and improve services for the least well-off.

It follows legislation in February which gave public bodies, including the Assembly Government, a duty to set out plans on tackling child poverty.

But the Conservatives said the latest consultation amounted to an admission by the Labour-Plaid Cymru administration that previous efforts to tackle child poverty had failed.

The proportion of children in poverty - defined as living on less than 60% of the median income - rose from 28% in 2005/06 to 32% in 2007/08.

The figure is higher than Scotland and Northern Ireland which have child poverty rates of 24% and 26% respectively.

Around half the children in poverty are from families where someone works.

First Minister Carwyn Jones said: "We were the first of the UK countries to introduce new legislation to add weight to our action to tackle child poverty, fulfilling a One Wales commitment.

"This new child poverty strategy and delivery plan is the fulfilment of this duty on Welsh ministers and we are setting ourselves three new strategic child poverty objectives which sum up our overall approach.

"Through these we recognise the crucial importance of work for parents as the most sustainable route out of poverty, the need to combat rising levels of poverty in families where there is someone in work through better training and quality jobs and, of course, the need to reduce the gap between the outcomes of our poorest children and their more affluent peers.’’ Deputy minister for children Huw Lewis said: "The continued existence of child poverty in a modern, civilised and progressive country such as Wales is unacceptable.

"Children and young people growing up in poverty are vulnerable in a number of different ways.

"We know they are more at risk of poor health, poor educational attainment, have lower skills and aspirations. They are also more likely to be low paid, unemployed and welfare dependent in adulthood.’’ He said the new strategy focussed on "improving outcomes’’ for poor children by concentrating on areas where the Assembly Government can have the most impact.

But shadow education minister Paul Davies said: "We know that 96,000 children in Wales live in severe poverty, with one in three living in households below average income levels.

"For this latest measure to be effective it must break the cycle of hopelessness and tackle the causes of poverty at its roots.

"We need real, effective action to give children and young people opportunity and hope for the future, not yet another consultation and yet another strategy.’’