Gordon Brown today ruled out the possibility of compulsory ID cards for British nationals in the next parliament in his speech to the Labour Party conference.

The statement was largely a reiteration of an announcement made by Alan Johnson earlier in the summer, saying the government would not introduce legislation to make the cards compulsory.

"And so conference, I can say to you today, in the next parliament there will be no compulsory ID cards for British citizens," said Brown, receiving one of the loudest cheers of his 59-minute speech.

But those applying for passports will still have their fingerprint details held on the national identity register, a central database to be used for ID cards and biometric passports that the Tories have promised to scrap should they win an election next year.

And the Home Office has the power to make a passport a "designated document" , effectively an ID card by another name.

But Brown also promised to reduce the number of pieces of personal data required to apply for a biometric passport.

"We will reduce the information British citizens have to give for the new biometric passport to no more than that required for today's passport," he said.

The government hopes that there will be a large voluntary take-up of ID cards over the next year and is spending more than £500,000 on an advertising campaign targeting the North West, where cards will be launched for the first time.

All foreign nationals in the UK will be required to carry ID cards from 2011.