The Liberal Democrats have voted to keep under review a policy to replace full-time soldiers with reservists.

Delegates described as "flawed" the move to cut regulars before the plan had proved successful.

Ministers want to cut the size of the Army by 20,000 to 82,000. At the same time they want to double the number of reservists to 30,000.

One LibDem member told the conference: "It is a flawed decision being taken to reduce the number of regulars before enough reservists have been recruited."

The party had a minister, Nick Harvey, in the Ministry of Defence during the early years of the Coalition, but during a reshuffle Nick Clegg choose to lose a position at the MoD in favour of one at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.