Nicola Sturgeon has said she will "restart the debate" on Scottish independence in the coming weeks.

It comes ahead of the findings of her party's growth commission into the economic opportunities of independence.

The First Minister confirmed the document would be published in the next few days and would outline a vision of "ambition and hope" rather than the "despair" she said had characterised the Brexit debate.

The commission, chaired by former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson, was set up two years ago to look at economic policy options for an independent Scotland.

It will make recommendations for an independent Scotland's currency as well as the range of costs and benefits associated with independence.

Speaking on Peston on Sunday on STV, Sturgeon also indicated the Scottish Government could still make a deal with UK ministers in their row over devolved powers coming back from the EU.

The dispute over the UK's Withdrawal Bill centres around what Scottish ministers call a "power grab" in key devolved areas.

Sturgeon said: "This is a debate that I appreciate often sounds very technical.

"But to put it very simply, there are some powers - powers over farming, fishing, environmental protections, food standards, food labelling - that are under the current law devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

"While we're in the EU, they're influenced at EU level, but this is a debate about what happens after Brexit.

"The current law says these powers should return to the Scottish Parliament and if we want to have UK-wide frameworks, which would make sense in some areas, then we do that by agreement.

"What the UK Government wants to do is to centralise these powers at Westminster for up to seven years and have the ability to impose things on Scotland."

Citing the possible example of a free trade deal between the UK and the US which resulted in lowered food standards, she said signing up to the Withdrawal Bill as it presently stood would leave Scotland "powerless".

On the growth commission, the First Minister told the programme: "Over the next couple of weeks we will, I suppose, restart a debate about why independence for Scotland is an opportunity and what those opportunities are.

"As you know, we've had a growth Commission looking at the economic opportunities of independence. Its report will be published in the coming days.

"I think that's quite an important moment, because if you think about the last couple of years in the UK, it's been very much a debate about how we cope with the damage of Brexit.

"What I think Scotland now has the opportunity to do is look at how we seize the opportunities that lie ahead.

"So, a debate based very much on ambition and hope, not a debate which is based on despair, which is how the Brexit debate so often feels."

Responding to Sturgeon's comments, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: "Scotland needs real and radical change - looking forwards not back.

"The economic and social transformation Scotland urgently needs will not come from another referendum on leaving the UK, on which the sovereign will of the Scottish people has been clearly expressed.

"It will come from radical Labour governments tackling poverty and inequality, extending public ownership and redistributing power - especially economic power from the few to the many."

The First Minister also insisted the SNP would not act as "a block" to those pushing for a second UK-wide referendum on the terms of the final Brexit deal.

"The SNP won't be the block to that, I've made that clear," she said.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie, whose party supports a second EU vote, urged the First Minister to back their plans instead of "fanning the flames of separatism".

Rennie commented: "With the economic and social impact of Brexit becoming more and more obvious, you would think that Nicola Sturgeon would start to recognise the damage that tearing up a successful union does.

"Rather than fan the flames of separatism once more the First Minister would be better off joining with us to press for a people's vote and the chance of an exit from Brexit."