Holyrood's Presiding Officer said last night that he would consider chairing a body to look at what additional powers the parliament might seek in future.

Alex Fergusson said there had been no contact with him about taking on such a role, adding: "I would be happy to consider it, but it is not something that has been put to me."

Mr Fergusson's name has arisen because the idea of an all-party parliamentary body, drawing in outside representatives, has been mooted along the lines of the Speaker's Conference at Westminster.

The idea is the brainchild of SNP's Alex Neil, who believes a mechanism for extending the powers of the Scottish Parliament should be pursued as a twin-track approach alongside his party's plans for a referendum on independence.

The advantage of that would be, he believes, that should MSPs vote down the planned white paper on an independence referendum it would not mean a complete halt on any progress towards extending devolution.

Mr Neil has not been hung up on the terminology for the new body. Whatever it is called, Mr Neil is clear about the mechanism: "While we in the SNP should not take our eye off the ball on independence, we need to make progress on additional powers for the parliament. The way forward, I believe, and other parties believe this as well, is to have a Scottish version of the Speakers' Conference.

"This will involve people from all walks of civic life to try and reach agreement on the additional powers that we would then petition Westminster on in the future."

While the LibDems in particular are comfortable with the notion of extending the powers of Holyrood, Labour rejected the whole idea, arguing that a better job had to be done of using existing powers.

While the Conservatives can see the merits of some reform, they believe it should be done in partnership with Westminster, not as a set of demands made from Scotland.

David McLetchie, the party's chief whip and business manager, said: "This smacks of unilateralism, and we have always taken the view that it should be developed through a partnership on both sides."

Mr Neil's own party hierarchy is concentrating its efforts on the white paper due within the next fortnight and then the effort to overturn what seems a clear majority against the referendum idea in parliament.

An aide to First Minister Alex Salmond said: "We feel that by bringing forward the white paper we have created a debate that other parties are feeling obliged to join, and these ideas are all part of that, drawing the country into a national conversation."