ALEX Salmond has backed Nicola Sturgeon to lead Scotland to independence, as he bowed out as SNP leader with an emotional farewell speech to the party conference.

The First Minister said ­September's independence ­referendum, despite ending in defeat for the Nationalists, had set Scotland on a course to leave the UK.

Turning to Ms Sturgeon at Perth Concert Hall, he told her: "Nicola, your contribution to where this party now stands has already been immense.

"Your future contribution will be to make history."

Referring to the impact of the referendum, he added: "The people will not disappear back into the political shadows and the nation will not fade into the dark.

"This country has changed and changed utterly.

"And that is the change which will carry us forward - forward to independence."

Mr Salmond received a seven-minute standing ovation at the end of his speech from delegates packed into the hall.

Before he got to his feet, they watched a film biography of the man who has led the SNP for 20 of the past 24 years, charting his life from Linlithgow schoolboy to Scotland's longest-serving First Minister.

He earned a first ovation even before he uttered a word.

In a speech punctuated by ­thunderous applause, he said the "dream'' of independence was "alive and well and will succeed'' and that he knew "with a greater certainty than ever before'' the country would leave the UK.

"At various times in our national story, Scotland has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,'' he said.

"This time, out of defeat will come future success.''

He insisted September 18 would in future "come to be seen as the day Scotland started to take control of our own destiny''.

"Mr Salmond claimed "the vow" of extensive new powers for Holyrood made by the main UK parties in the run-up to the referendum had persuaded many Scots to vote No.

He warned that if they failed to keep their promises, Scots would demand a second referendum.

He said: "If the Westminster gang reneges on that promise made in the campaign, they will discover that hell hath no fury like this nation scorned.

"The UK parties should be in no doubt - give Scots the power we demand or Scotland will vote to take it."

Mr Salmond, who is considering running for Westminster, raised a laugh when he joked he would not be standing in Lewes, the East Sussex town where an effigy of the First Minister was detonated on bonfire night.

And remembering his election as SNP leader at Perth City hall, a stone's throw from yesterday's venue, in 1990, he quipped: "It was a different time. I didn't have to diet."

But these were rare lighthearted moments in a speech that sought to defend his record in office, denounce the claims of the pro-UK parties during the referendum and dismiss the SNP's main opponents in the forthcoming election, ­Scottish Labour.

In an extended attack, he said the party was "an intellectually bankrupt and politically hollow organisation".

Referring to former leader Johann Lamont's complaint that Scottish Labour was treated as a "branch office" of the UK party, he said: "A Labour Party that needs permission to speak out agains the bedroom tax isn't a Labour Party at all and, a branch office isn't a Scottish Labour Party. And the Labour Party in ­Scotland are already paying the price for ­standing shoulder to shoulder with the Tories.

"So reduced have they become that rather than rise to the ­greatest occasion in Scottish democratic history they sank into the Tory maw.

"But if Labour thinks Scots will just forgive and forget, they are deeply mistaken."

Mr Salmond, who celebrates his 60th birthday next month, is expected formally to step down as First Minister on Tuesday before Ms Sturgeon is elected by MSPs to replace him the following day.