The Assembly must work together - and quickly - to rescue plans which could regenerate the economy of Wales.

That is the message from Plaid Cymru, who warn the political upheaval of last week must not be allowed to cloud the major issues facing Wales.

But last week's political reverberations are continuing with William Hague accusing Tony Blair of losing control of his party following the Assembly leadership crisis which saw the resignation of former First Secretary Alun Michael.

His acting replacement Rhodri Morgan will face election to the permanent post of Assembly first secretary on Tuesday and until then he is not yet talking policy.

But the result is being seen as a foregone conclusion.

And with a new man at the top, it is widely felt that a new mood will sweep through the Assembly, bringing with it fresh hope for the economy of west Wales and the south Wales Valleys.

These communities could benefit from £1.2bn though the European aid system called Objective One.

Assembly politicians accept they have lost the fight to get new money from London, to enable the first round of Objective One projects to get underway.

But Plaid Cymru say its not too late to find the necessary funding if the Labour party will agree to use reserves of Welsh money held by central government.

"It would have been proper if the money had come from London but now that is hasn't come we must look to the reserves of under-spend in previous years," said Plaid's economic development spokesman Phil Williams AM.

"That money is there and if we can use that we can go out with confidence to all the voluntary organisations and say 'get your plans ready, we can go ahead'."

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has been in Wales to meet party members in Llanwrtyd Wells.

His visit led to further speculation on the possibility of a future coalition with Labour in the Assembly.