THE Conservatives today rejected claims from Labour and Plaid Cymru that David Cameron would include Wales in areas singled out for extra spending cuts.

It comes after the Tory leader cited Northern Ireland and the north-east of England as examples of places where the role of the state had grown too big compared to the private sector economy.

The Conservatives' opponents seized on the comments, made during an interview with the BBC's Jeremy Paxman on Friday, despite Mr Cameron not mentioning Wales.

Labour warned Wales's reliance on the public sector was even greater, accounting for 23.9% of jobs compared to 23% in the north-east at the end of 2008.

Shadow Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan said: "David Cameron was absolutely not saying certain areas of the United Kingdom would take a disproportionate share of public sector cuts.

"What he was talking about was the need to boost private enterprise and the private sector's share of the economy.

"By Mr Hain's own admission - and that of the First Minister - the private sector in Wales is too small.’’ Shadow chancellor George Osborne has said cuts to Wales's devolved budget will be postponed from this financial year if the Tories win the election.

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said: "With every passing day David Cameron's big society sounds more and more like the same old Tories - tax cuts for the few at the expense of cuts to essential services.’’ He said there was a "world of difference’’ between nurturing businesses and "wielding the knife on the public sector’’ as the Tories planned.

Plaid's adviser on the economy, Eurfyl ap Gwilym, said the nationalists' own estimate of the scale of cuts facing Wales had been "vindicated’’ by a report from the Wales Audit Office which last month said the Assembly Government could lose £500 million a year.

"None of the London-based parties are coming clean on this,’’ he said.

"These cuts are going to be imposed upon Wales - the Welsh government has no say in that.’’