Labour today accused First Minister Alex Salmond of leading an administration that had "run out of steam" after just 19 months in power.

The charge was made by Labour leader Iain Gray who claimed the government has run out of ideas and that Mr Salmond was like "a rabbit caught in the headlights".

The charge came in exchanges at First Minister's Questions where he challenged Mr Salmond to "bury" the Scottish Futures Trust - the SNP's plans for reforming the financing of major projects.

Mr Salmond rejected the charges, mocked Mr Gray, and said the Scottish Futures Trust offered better value than the "disgraceful excesses" of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public Private Partnerships (PPP).

In closing exchanges, Mr Gray claimed: "As Scots face the challenges of 2009, it is the First Minister who must raise his game - because he looks more and more like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

"Paralysed by policies which don't work but which he won't drop, a government run out of ideas and fast running out of excuses.

"Will the First Minister now admit that after only 19 months he has run out of steam?"

Mr Gray began by noting that a year ago today, Mr Salmond had "sneaked out" a consultation exercise on the Scottish Futures Trust.

On Tuesday, Holyrood's Finance Committee reported there was "insufficient information" to judge if this would improve value for money or to judge its role in managing a pipeline of projects.

There was also "insufficient information" to comment on accountability and governance issues, the committee said.

"A year later - and we still don't know that the Futures Trust is, or how it will work," said Mr Gray.

"Does the First Minister still believe it is ever going to build anything - and if he does, does he believe in Santa, too?"

Mr Salmond said Mr Gray had told the Big Issue magazine he would like to have on his Christmas wish list a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses "as modelled by Barack Obama".

"I can't promise Iain Gray Barack Obama's one, but I'll do what I can for the sunglasses," he said.

Mr Salmond went on: "The Scottish Futures Trust promises and offers the people of Scotland better value for money than they had from the disgraceful excesses of the PFI and the PPP."

He told MSPs that capital investments "announced or taken forward" by the SNP government totalled more than £8 billion.

"The most satisfying aspect is that no less than £2 billion of these capital announcements are going to be taken forward under the Non Profit Distribution (NPD)- the financial mechanism at the heart of the Scottish Futures Trust proposal," said Mr Salmond.

Mr Gray said finance secretary John Swinney had admitted the NPD was a version of the Public Private Partnership.

"The difference is that the PPP actually builds schools and hospitals," he said.

"The First Minister said the SFT would build bullet trains, road, super-ports and a Forth bridge.

"Patriotic Scots would buy patriotic bonds for these patriotic projects."

But the 3,000 page document setting out the government's long term transport strategy contained no mention of the Scottish Futures Trust and not one of the 29 projects in it would be built in this way, he went on.

"The Futures Trust is dead - will the First Minister do Scotland's parents, pupils, passengers and builders a favour and bury it once and for all?"

Mr Salmond retorted the PFI and PPP under Labour had been "disasters".

And he contrasted Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, for which "every single one of us" would be paying for the next 20-25 years, with the £842 million publicly-financed Southern General Hospital planned for Glasgow.

New public finance rules next April on off-balance sheet accounting would end the PFI "age of irresponsibility".

"Therefore, how important it must be to get value for money from public projects - the efficiencies and the savings that the Scottish Futures Trust will bring forward," said Mr Salmond.

But Mr Gray insisted that for 10 years, the PFI and PPP had built schools and hospitals and created "tens of thousands" of jobs for Scottish workers.

"The Futures Trust debacle is costing Scotland jobs - the construction industry says 25,000 have gone already, 100,000 more jobs are at risk.

"Yet this government still plays politics with infrastructure."

He compared finance secretary John Swinney to movie gangster James Cagney - "reduced to threatening that schools and hospitals will get it unless funds are forthcoming for his Forth crossing."

That threat might have been potent if anyone had believed they would ever have been built in the first place, he went on.

"This Futures Trust with no future has £23 million against it," he told MSPs.

"That could build new homes for almost 300 families.

"Will the First Minister take that money away from the Futures Trust now and use it to create some of the construction jobs Scotland needs so badly?"

Mr Salmond said the Scottish Futures Trust offered annual savings of £150 million on the capital programme.

He said Mr Gray had also told the Big Issue, that apart from glasses, he wanted a Johnny Seven Gun.

"I might manage the sunglasses - but even Jimmy Cagney cannot manage the gun", he said.

Mr Gray told MSPs: "We've all seen the First Minister's IM Jolly.

"But really it is Only An Excuse that he should be starring in."

He went on: "It's not just his Futures Trust, dead in the water.

"It's his local income tax, which no-one wants.

"It's his concordat that councils want to renegotiate, his energy policy which even his own economic advisors are saying is wrong.

"It is a response to the economic crisis which culminates in him tomorrow launching a commemorative shortbread tin.

"Nice, but not enough."

He then launched the jibe about Mr Salmond being like a rabbit caught in the headlights and "paralysed" by policies he was unwilling to drop.

After mocking Mr Gray for his weekly gloom, Mr Salmond told MSPs that Holyrood's Finance Committee had been advised that cuts announced in Chancellor Alistair Darling's pre-budget report would exceed £500 million.

"How can Iain Gray ask a single question about finance as we look forward to £1 billion over two years slashed from the Scottish budget by Alistair Darling, Gordon Brown and Jim Murphy?" said Mr Salmond.

"It may not be entirely surprising that Iain Gray is totally at the mercy of decisions made in London - after all, they even run his own constituency party."