The SNP conference has rejected a bid to reopen the controversial question of the party's support for Nato membership.

Delegates voted overwhelmingly against an appeal for fresh debate of the decision to ditch its 30-year opposition to an independent Scotland remaining in the defence alliance.

Feelings remain high about the stance, which split the party down the middle at the 2012 conference and forced a number of high-profile resignations.

Demands for a rethink were led by local councillor Audrey Doig who complained the issue had been "swept under the carpet because we've already had a vote on this".

She said that if party leader Nicola Sturgeon was allowed to keep the door open to a second referendum on independence "because we didn't like the result" of the first one then the same rules should apply.

The move was pushed as the Aberdeen gathering discussed the party's "pivotal position" in the debate over the renewal of the UK's Trident nuclear deterrent - which is based in Scotland.

A crunch vote on proceeding with a like-for-like replacement for the ageing submarine-based weapons system is due at Westminster within months.

The SNP is seeking to exploit deep Labour divisions on the issue - with leader Jeremy Corbyn in open dispute with his shadow cabinet over his opposition to the nuclear deterrent and his refusal to say he would deploy it as PM.

With some senior Scottish Labour figures backing the scrapping of Trident, its leader Kezia Dugdale is under pressure from the SNP to take a firm stance ahead of the party's own conference later this month.

Ivan McKee, SNP candidate for Glasgow Provan for the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, said nuclear weapons were "expensive, useless and immoral" and should be ditched.

He dismissed claims that removing the weapons would have a heavy cost in lost jobs.

If MPs in Westminster wanted to keep the missiles, he said, they should "relocate them to the Thames, have warheads travelling on trucks through London".

It has been reported that ministers are considering holding the crucial "main gate" vote before Christmas in a bid to exploit Labour's divisions and prevent the issue dominating Scottish Parliament elections next May.