The British government was poised to send the Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Bill to the House of Lords later today once it was passed by the House of Commons.
Six Ulster Unionist Party MPs - including its leader, Mr David Trimble - and the Democratic Unionist Party leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, earlier voted against a timetable motion that the Bill should proceed in whole to the floor of the House, signalling reservations that the legislation had been written in haste.
The 88 MPs who voted against the motion included 16 Labour, 19 Liberal Democrats and 39 Conservatives, including the former prime minister, Sir Edward Heath; 317 MPs voted in favour of continuing with the Bill in its complete form.
Opening the emergency recall of parliament to debate "draconian" anti-terrorist legislation, the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, told MPs that "strong and decisive" steps must be taken to deal with a small, unrepresentative group of terrorists who wanted to use violence to undermine the peace process and the democratic will of the people of the island of Ireland.
Owing to the "complete unity of purpose" between the British and Irish governments, Mr Blair said the terrorists responsible for the horror of Omagh would be hunted down and brought to justice.
To the terrorists who bombed Omagh, Mr Blair sent a stark message: "You sought to wreck the agreement and you failed. You sought to divide the community and you failed. You sought to win new support and you failed."
The new legislation will make it easier to secure convictions for membership of proscribed organisations, but a decision to send a suspect for trial will not depend solely on the word of a senior police officer; inference can be drawn from a suspect's refusal to answer questions under caution but no inference will be drawn unless the suspect has had the opportunity to consult a solicitor.
The legislation also gives the police the power to seize the assets of a person convicted of membership of a proscribed organisation if those assets were being used in the direction of terrorism or were being used to commit a terrorist offence. It will also be an offence to conspire in the United Kingdom to commit terrorist offences abroad.
Of his party's support for the Bill, the Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, said the Tories were prepared to do all they could to help the people of Northern Ireland achieve peace. He welcomed Sinn Fein's statement this week that all violence should end, but he said the early release of paramilitary prisoners should be halted until decommissioning had begun.
One of the "glaring" differences between the anti-terrorist legislation proposed in London and Dublin was that the British government had decided against reintroducing the power of internment.
Mr Blair rejected Mr Hague's criticism that the anti-terrorist legislation had been conceived in haste and insisted that the co-operation between London and Dublin was closer than at any time in the past 30 years. The Bill represented "the toughest possible responsible measures against terrorism but he had made a judgment against using internment. Moreover, Mr Blair welcomed the appointment of Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, to work with the independent decommissioning body, repeating that the Belfast Agreement must be taken as a whole and all weapons should be decommissioned within two years.
The Liberal Democrats leader, Mr Paddy Ashdown, signalled his party's support for the legislation, saying that an important safeguard had been built into the Bill which required parliament to review and renew the laws each year.
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, who had received the Bill an hour before the debate began, joined a number of Labour, unionist and Tory MPs in calling on the Government to allow for more time to debate the Bill. He said he would need to study the legislation in detail "before making a response".
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, pressed the government to retain the power of internment and said he feared the Irish Government's legislation would prove "ineffective". He pointed out that if Dublin decided to introduce internment the `Real IRA' could flee to the "safe haven" of the UK if internment was not reintroduced by London.
Earlier the former shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Mr Kevin McNamara, urged the government to dump the clauses relating to international terrorism in order to give MPs more time to debate legislation relating to terrorism in Northern Ireland.
He was joined by Dr Paisley, who also criticised the government for rushing the legislation through parliament in two days. He said MPs were being asked to snub their noses at the House of Lords and pass the legislation without serious debate.
The UK Unionist Party leader, Mr Robert McCartney, described the legislation as making a distinction between small terrorist groups with no support and the Provisional IRA who through its "alter ego", Sinn Fein, had secured political support. Were they entering a "two-tier system of terrorism and a two-tier system of justice?" That would be viewed as "a grave mistake".
Signalling the reservations of many backbenchers, the Labour MP, Mr Tony Benn, welcomed the recall of parliament but said everyone was "deeply affronted" that Omagh was being mixed up with legislation dealing in part with the threat of international terrorism.