Gordon Brown used today's Pre-Budget Report to outline his  vision of Britain as a "family-friendly" country, and as a world leader in science and technology against the growing economic influence of China and Asia.

Coming within six months before the probable date of a General Election, and with his own ambition as keen as ever, Mr Brown's statement included several headline-grabbing initiatives, and saw him maintain that his famous "golden rule" on public borrowing had not been broken.

He also pledged £1 billion to local councils to ensure that there would be no increases in council tax above last year's 5.6 per cent levels.

Mr Brown told MPs that the Government would put in place an ambitious ten-year childcare strategy if Labour was re-elected at the forthcoming election, expected next May.

He also announced extra help for older pensioners with one-off payments of £250 for the over seventies and £350 for the over eighties on top of the winter fuel allowance.

The centrepiece of his statement was his plans for increasing help to families with young children. It includes a £285 million cash injection to extend paid maternity leave from six months to nine, with parents able to transfer leave from the mother to the father.

He also promised an extension of childcare with free nursery education for three and four-year-olds increased to 15 hours from April 2007. And he said that funds would be provided to keep schools open from 8am to 6pm to look after children while their parents are at work.

Mr Brown went to some lengths to defend his record for prudence and maintain that Britain's national debt would be 33.4 per cent of GDP next year, and not exceed 37 per cent in the economic cycle, thus staying well within the 40 per cent limit which he had set.

The golden rule would be met by a margin of £8 billion.

"With our deficits lower than our competitors', lower than in past decades - and with our debt lower than our competitors' and lower than past decades - we are meeting both our fiscal rules," he said.

"The Britain of long-term economic strength will be the Britain that a time of rapid economic change and uncertainty locks in our economic stability for the long term."

Analysts remained sceptical of this optimistic outlook, however.  "There are no surprises that the Chancellor says he is going to meet the golden rule over the economic cycle," Phil Shaw, from Investec, said. "At first glance the public finance forecasts look optimistic and that is underpinned by a strong GDP forecast for next year of 3.0 to 3.5 per cent, which in our opinion is too high."

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