  We introduce notions of equivalence of conservation laws with respect to Lie
symmetry groups for fixed systems of differential equations and with respect to
equivalence groups or sets of admissible transformations for classes of such
systems. We also revise the notion of linear dependence of conservation laws
and define the notion of local dependence of potentials. To construct
conservation laws, we develop and apply the most direct method which is
effective to use in the case of two independent variables. Admitting
possibility of dependence of conserved vectors on a number of potentials, we
generalize the iteration procedure proposed by Bluman and Doran-Wu for finding
nonlocal (potential) conservation laws. As an example, we completely classify
potential conservation laws (including arbitrary order local ones) of
diffusion--convection equations with respect to the equivalence group and
construct an exhaustive list of locally inequivalent potential systems
corresponding to these equations.
