Forget Iceland. Australia's a hotter role model for Scotland, says Alex Salmond

First it was the "arc of prosperity", likening the economic opportunities presented by an independent Scotland to that experienced in near-neighbours Ireland, Iceland and Norway.

• Alex Salmond: 'Scotland also has amazing resources'

Now, following the collapse of the Icelandic banks and a particularly harsh Irish recession, the First Minister has a new foreign economic model to follow - and it could not be further, geographically, away.

Alex Salmond claimed that the break-up of the Union could see Scotland copy the relative economic success of Australia, which withstood the global economic storm and avoid entering a recession, thanks in part to its robust mining industry.

The First Minister said Scotland, like Australia, had "amazing natural resources" that could help the country economically in recessionary times.

He said: "I was looking at the Australian election debate. People were pointing out how interesting it was that a government may have fallen despite the country being virtually immune to recession."

He added: "The reason Australia was virtually immune is because it is a resource-rich country. Scotland is such a country, but we don't control the revenues of the resources."

Mr Salmond also revealed that Scottish independence will be the focus of the SNP's campaign for the Holyrood elections next year, after he conceded his Referendum Bill was unlikely to receive support from opposition parties.

The First Minister claimed the break-up of the Union would be a "major issue" in his party's Scottish Parliament election campaign, as it seeks to win a historic second term by convincing voters an independent Scotland would be better placed to deal with the economic crisis without imposing a public spending squeeze.

Mr Salmond said: "I've always said that if the other parties don't pass the bill the people will have their say as to whether they want that opportunity in the election next year. People can take the decision to force the issue.

"It will be a major, perhaps dominating issue, in the election, not because it is about not giving the people a say in their own future, but because we will be making the link to the economic crisis and saying if we have economic and financial powers, then we can deal, not with all, but with the majority of this economic problem, which otherwise we have to deal with within a fixed budget."

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray Mr Salmond was "out of touch" with ordinary Scots.

"He has stopped speaking to the country and is now only concerned with placating his own activists," Mr Gray said. "There is no other explanation for his pledge to make the constitution a bigger priority than people's jobs in next year'scampaign."