The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has warned the two other major parties that he will not support them if they try to make significant cuts in public spending following the general election.

Interviewed on the Today programme about the prospect of a hung parliament after the election, and if his party would support a minority Conservative or Labour government, he said that anything more than the £15 billion in cuts which they had identified already would be 'masochistic'.

He added that cuts beyond that in this financial year would risk "pulling the rug from under the feet" of the British economy, which he said was still "too fragile".

Both David Cameron and Gordon Brown have argued repeatedly about the level and timing of public spending cuts required to deal with record government debt.

Mr Clegg was speaking as the Liberal Democrats are meeting in Birmingham for their spring conference.