WELSH under-secretary Don Touhig today insisted it would be "business as usual" as the Wales Office is absorbed into a new Department for Constitutional Affairs.

Mr Touhig, MP for Islwyn, said the former head of the Wales Office, Peter Hain, would continue to speak for Wales in cabinet, and retain his former ministerial title.

Mr Touhig also revealed that he had been reappointed to his post as under-secretary of state.

Defending the changes, he said: "These matters have been talked about for a long time. The main thing I wanted to say is that the devolution settlement is bedding down very nicely.

"We have a good working relationship with Rhodri Morgan and the Assembly.

"There will continue to be a strong voice in cabinet in the shape of Peter Hain, and together we serve on 25 cabinet committees. So it will be business as usual in Wales."

Mr Touhig insisted that the new changes had no bearing on the outcome of the Richard Commission, which has been appointed by the National Assembly to consider the future of devolution in Wales.

He told the Argus: "At some stage the government will have to consider the commission's findings, but for the moment we have a huge task working with the Assembly to build a world-class Wales."

The Assembly's first minister, Rhodri Morgan, downplayed the significance of the reshuffle.

"Anyone who thought that devolution would have no effect on the offices of Wales and Scotland was living in cloud- cuckoo-land.

"The issue was not if, but when and how the offices of secretaries of state for Wales and Scotland would evolve," he said.

But opposition parties have reacted angrily to the reorganisation, which absorbs the Scottish and Welsh Offices into a new department headed by Lord Falconer.

The shadow secretary of state for Wales, Nigel Evans, said: "Putting the former Dome Minister in charge of a combined Wales and Scotland post is a gross insult."

Since the 1997 referendum established devolved government in Wales with a wafer-thin majority, many have warned that Scotland and Wales would not retain their independent seats in cabinet for long.