Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon was accused yesterday of �megaphone diplomacy� after saying Westminster should pay the £100m bill for vaccinating everyone in Scotland against swine flu.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon was accused yesterday of "megaphone diplomacy" after saying Westminster should pay the £100m bill for vaccinating everyone in Scotland against swine flu.

She came under attack after saying the money should come from a contingency fund held by the UK Government.

"If a flu pandemic is not a contingency, most people would struggle to think what is," she said.

Ms Sturgeon was speaking as a further 60 cases were confirmed, taking the current Scottish total to 626, with another 461 cases under investigation.

She denied Scotland was losing its grip in the fight against the virus, insisting it was among "the best-prepared countries in the world to deal with pandemic flu" and offering vaccination to everybody was the "right policy".

"Even if the flu virus doesn't become any more serious - and it's important to point out that most people experience mild symptoms - then it will have a big economic and social impact, and that's why it's the right policy."

Scotland, along with the administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland, has made a case to the Treasury for UK funding.

Ms Sturgeon said: "The response thus far has not been entirely positive, but we will continue to seek constructive discussions and our colleagues in Wales and Northern Ireland are keen to do so as well."

Labour's shadow health secretary, Cathy Jamieson, said: "There will obviously be a cost for a vaccination programme, and it is only right that Scotland should be treated in exactly the same way as England." But she warned: "The public will not forgive anyone who plays politics at a time like this."

A Tory Party spokesman said: "This is precisely the sort of issue on which there has to be clarity in the rules and why we have to forge better relationships between the two governments."