Rhodri Morgan has argued that devolution has made Britain stronger.

The first minister in the Welsh administration said on Wednesday night that the Cardiff assembly had created a more "responsive and reflective" political system.

Speaking in an Oxford Union debate, Morgan said that before devolution the UK had one of the most centralised forms of government of any large democracy.

He added that power was focused on a London-based administration that meant the needs and aspirations of individual parts of the UK were overlooked.

This centralised system of government had been "too blunt and too insensitive to reflect, and respond to, the needs of the people it was supposed to represent".

"Devolution was a direct and simple way of improving quality of government by making it more sensitive to people's needs and aspirations.

"It was about creating institutions that could develop policies that were relevant and could make a difference to people's lives rather than have policies imposed by a centralised government in London," he said.

"The Welsh assembly's policies over the past four years have achieved that in that they have been a direct response to the particular challenges that people in Wales face."

Morgan, himself an Oxford graduate, was taking part in a debate the effects of Welsh and Scottish devolution on the UK.

He was joined by Scottish secretary Helen Liddell.

Opposing the motion that "This House believes that devolution has strengthened the Union" was former secretary of state for Scotland Lord Forsyth and SNP leader Alex Salmond.