Gordon Brown has hinted that the next spending round will see more cash for key priorities such as health and education.

Delivering his keynote speech to the party's conference on Monday, the chancellor said that Labour was not in office "for its own sake".

In a bid to win round weary delegates to a belief in the government's future direction, Brown mapped out the differences between Labour and its opponents.

And he promised to "lock in" higher spending on public services in next summer's comprehensive spending review.

The chancellor said he would keep delivering higher public spending as he sought to brand Labour as the party prepared to fund the NHS.

"The next spending round will not only lock in the higher spending we have been delivering - meeting our commitments to all the public services from policing to transport, meeting our fiscal rules - but do more: with further increases in spending and investment for our priorities in the years to come," he said.

"And let me tell you it is only this Labour Party that will have as a priority for our spending review tackling the greatest unfairness in our society -- the unfairness to a child born into poverty."

Responding to the speech, shadow chancellor Michael Howard warned that Brown had "condemned the British people to an extended sentence of higher tax, more waste and more failure".

"Gordon Brown's record over the last six and a half years has been one of tax and spend and fail," he said.

Brown also reaffirmed his commitment to manufacturing and international aid, while promising never to "never to abandon fiscal responsibility".

"Where we will succeed in the future...is by demonstrating the strength to take long term decisions," he said.

"By being honest with the British people about the direction and challenges ahead...and being true to our Labour values.

"Never losing sight of Labour's vision for Britain. Not stability for stability's sake. Never power for power's sake.

"But stability and power for a purpose - to be on the side of hard working families."

With a march claimed to be numbering 2,500 demonstrators descending on Bournemouth to raise the plight of British manufacturing, Brown said November's Pre-Budget Report would include a series of initiatives to address the problem

The Commons announcement would offer "the best incentives for science, for research, for development, for investment, for infrastructure, for technology transfer and for exports and trade" he said.

The chancellor said UK industry "is best advanced as active partners in Europe".

Claiming that the health service "is only truly safe in our hands", Brown labelled Conservative proposals a "poll tax for the NHS".

"It is because we owe obligations to each other that go beyond calculation contract and exchange that we are proud of this Labour Party's unique and special contribution to British society - the National Health Service," he said.

"It is also our duty to tell every family every pensioner in Britain of the fundamental decision of the Tory party not just to cut NHS funding but to plan the destruction of the NHS - their plan to import American vouchers, charges and private medicine funded by public money taken from the NHS.

"Under the Tories you can have a heart by pass but your poll tax for health is £9,000 you must pay up front. So who will receive treatment under the Tory plan?

"Not those whose medical need is greatest but those whose bank balance is largest."