THE road linking Glasgow and Edinburgh will be upgraded to motorway all the way, Alex Salmond has announced.

Mr Salmond revealed the M8 work in his speech to the SNP's annual conference in Aviemore.

He said that as well as the Government's already announced plans to electrify the rail link between Glasgow and Edinburgh - which will cut the train journey to 35 minutes - improvements would also be made for drivers.

The stretch of road between Baillieston and Newhouse, which is now dual carriageway, will be upgraded to motorway status. Work will also be done to remove the bottleneck at Raith on the M74.

No cost for the project has been revealed nor a date for when it will be completed.

Mr Salmond also urged his party to use its record in government to help make the case for Scottish independence. He said: "The better we govern, the stronger the case."

His speech was greeted with a standing ovation before he began, and a longer four-minute ovation when he finished.

The other announcement was a cull of the quangos. There are 200 such bodies in Scotland - which is to be slashed by 50 over the lifetime of this Parliament.

Meanwhile, Tory leader David Cameron was accused of threatening the break-up of the UK after the Tories unveiled proposals to strip Scottish MPs of the right to vote on English matters at Westminster.

Under the plan, a new English Grand Committee - open only to English MPs - would deal with legislation, such as schools and hospitals, relating only to England.

It's the brainchild of ex-Scots Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind.