SCOTTISH Secretary Donald Dewar yesterday denied that he was prepared to consider doing any sort of deal with the Tories to prevent the Nationalists from using the Scottish Parliament to propel the country towards independence.

He went further by dismissing talk of pacts and stressing his firm belief that Labour could win an outright majority at the polls next May and form an administration at Holyrood.

Watched by his new special adviser David Whitton, who was on his first day of spin doctoring, Mr Dewar said: ''I have no intention of looking for any form of arrangement with the Scottish Conservative Party, which is truly out of touch with Scotland and Scotland's needs''. To suggest he wanted to ''get into bed politically'' with the Tories was ''absolute nonsense''.

Speculation that Mr Dewar was so desperate at the recent surge in the polls by the SNP that he was prepared to consider even the Tories as allies started after remarks he made on the BBC TV programme Words With Wark. Then, he appeared to imply that some form of broad anti-SNP pact was possible.

However, yesterday - speaking after he had delivered an inaugural lecture on urban regeneration in an Edinburgh cinema complex - he had toughened up his stance and hit out at the Conservatives who are struggling to re-establish themselves in Scotland after their electoral wipeout last year.

Mr Dewar said: ''Daily they continue to make the same mistakes in the House of Commons and in Scotland. I don't regard them as being in the land of the living as far as the realities of Scottish politics are concerned.''

Rounding on the SNP, which wants a swift referendum on independence, he claimed it would be against the interests of Scotland to allow the Parliament to become simply a battleground over future constitutional change.

''The Parliament was created by the vote of the people and I think the mood of Scotland is that the Parliament should be given a chance to prove its worth,'' Mr Dewar said. Constant attempts by the SNP to force an independence referendum were a recipe for ''constitutional chaos''.

What the people wanted was to see the new legislature tackle urban regeneration and the issues of jobs, education and housing.

However, at the same time SNP leader Alex Salmond was issuing a challenge to the Prime Minister to debate the future of Scotland with him in Scotland. He was reacting to reports that Tony Blair was to lead the attack on the Nationalists in the run up to next year's elections.

Mr Salmond claimed that the Scottish Secretary had been sidelined by his Cabinet colleagues and there was now confusion over who was leading Labour's campaign against the SNP.

However Mr Dewar said the important thing was for the Labour Government to carry on promoting policies which it believed were right for Scotland and could be carried on by the new Parliament.

Asked what he would be saying at a meeting of Scottish Labour's National Executive later today, Mr Dewar said obviously there was a lot of work to be done. There was a very friendly reception in the communities he visited and they would be building on that. Scottish Labour would be campaigning hard and putting forward a positive programme.