The former Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, was tonight accused of glorifying terrorists by suggesting the Provisional IRA should be regarded as freedom fighters.
Hard-line Ulster Unionists launched a withering attack on Mr Mandelson’s comment that a distinction should be made between armed groups who engage in a political process and Osama bin Laden's followers.
South Antrim MP Mr David Burnside declared: "It glorifies terrorism to call them freedom fighters and put them in the same category as someone like Nelson Mandela.
His UUP colleague, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, branded Mr Mandelson's comments "disgraceful".
In a television programme broadcast tonight on the impact of the September 11th attacks on America, Mr Mandelson insisted those groups which embark on negotiations to find a political solution should be regarded differently to bin Laden's al Qaida network.
Speaking during the Channel 4 programme, The Year the World Changed, he said: "I think the distinction we have to make is not between good and bad terrorists.
"It is between those terrorists who have political objectives and are prepared to negotiate those objectives at the end of the day and engage in some sort of dialogue and ultimately some sort of political or peace process.
"I don't call them terrorists when they reach that stage. They are resisters. They are freedom fighters, or whatever."
A Sinn Fein spokesman said Mr Mandelson was only echoing views expressed by party’s president Mr Gerry Adams.
But shocked unionists reacted with dismay to the comments from a man who had been regarded as sympathetic to their cause during his time in the North.
"Of the last three Secretaries of State in some ways he has at least attempted to be more understanding and I find this strange coming from him," said Mr Burnside.
"What the IRA did in the last 33 years wasn't the work of freedom fighters, it was fascist terrorism."
PA