The Scottish Government has made only "some limited progress" in tackling child poverty, an internal government document admits.

The memo, a briefing paper for the equalities secretary Angela Constance, calls the level of child poverty in Scotland "completely unacceptable".

It was released to STV News following a freedom of information request.

In 2007, when the SNP were first elected to office, the party pledged to make "reducing poverty and dependency will...an SNP priority" in government.

The document states: "The Scottish Government remains fully committed to tackling child poverty. We recognise that there is still a long way to go, and it will remain a top priority.

"While we have made some limited progress in tackling child poverty in recent years, this must be seen in context of the overall number of children living in poverty - 220,000 after housing costs were taken into account - which of course is completely unacceptable."

Civil servants created the document for the cabinet minister ahead of her first meeting with the First Minister's independent adviser on poverty Naomi Eisenstadt in August last year.

Ahead of the meeting, Constance was briefed to ask Eisenstadt how she felt the administration was performing on short term poverty reduction measures. These measures were described as "quick wins" by the Scottish Government in the paper.

The equalities secretary was also tasked with asking Eisenstadt if she would like to be part of a proposed poverty and inequality commission but was warned "it might be difficult to ask this".

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have criticised the Scottish Government for aiming for "quick wins" on poverty.

Sheila Thomson, the party's children spokeswoman said: "Addressing child poverty shouldn't be about racking up "quick wins" for short term political gain.

"With more than 220,000 children living in poverty in Scotland we need a bold and forward-thinking approach, not the 'limited progress' that the SNP government has now admitted it has overseen."

Scottish Labour said they were not surprised the SNP had only made "some limited progress" in the area.

Mark Griffin, the party's social security spokesman, said: "During ten years of Nationalist government, we have seen the gap between rich and poor expand - and £170m of SNP cuts to local services in 2017 is only going to make the situation worse.

Scottish Conservative equalities spokeswoman Annie Wells said:"The SNP likes to talk a good game on poverty and inequality.

"But the reality is it has achieved next to nothing in ten years, and its own documents admit as much.

"It's a government that's been utterly distracted by the constitution, meaning areas like tacking deprivation have fallen off the priorities list.

"This embarrassing and sycophantic briefing note proves that."

A spokesman for Ms Constance said: "We will take absolutely no lectures from the Tories on tackling poverty and inequality, given that they are presiding over the most brutal welfare cuts in living memory and are handing out tax cuts to their rich friends while poverty rates increase across the UK.

"We are doing everything we can to tackle the scourge of poverty but have always been clear that this is being undermined by a succession of UK Government policies which should frankly shame any developed country.

"Most people would agree that implementing measures which would quickly reduce poverty and inequality is a good thing."