Former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson has accused Prime Minister Tony Blair of making "irresponsible" concessions to republicans to secure peace in Northern Ireland.
The European commissioner and staunch Blairite told the Guardiannewspaper he had different views from Mr Blair and at one point refused to write a secret letter to Sinn Féin.
"In order to keep the process in motion (Mr Blair) would be sort of dangling carrots and possibilities in front of the republicans which I thought could never be delivered, that it was unreasonable and irresponsible to intimate that you could when you knew that you couldn't," he said,
Mr Mandelson was Northern Ireland secretary between 1999 and 2001, when he was forced to resign amid the Hinduja passport application affair.
Mr Mandelson played down the significance of the Guardian'sstory, however, and this morning, he said he regarded Mr Blair's record in Northern Ireland as being among his greatest achievements in office.
But he said there had been a risk in the negotiations that offering concessions to Sinn Féin would undermine the SDLP.
"Whenever you appeared to be making concessions to republicans, you risked alienating unionists and/or upsetting nationalists because on that side of the community they are in competition for the same votes," he said.
Mr Mandelson refused to be drawn on suggestions that his second resignation had been linked to his views on Northern Ireland, and that Mr Blair's then press secretary Alastair Campbell had been responsible for the media storm that forced him to go.