The massive bomb was discovered in Fermanagh

Troops Disarm Massive Bomb in Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland Secretary, Mo Mowlam, condemned the planting of the bomb and asked for a full security briefing to determine who was responsible.

BBC Correspondent Mark Devenport analyses the Fermanagh incident

The RUC said that the bomb was discovered at the Carrybridge Hotel, Lisbellaw, Co Fermanagh, after a telephone warning was received at 10PM on Thursday night. Police cleared the area, which is a popular tourist destination. The controlled explosion was carried out on a Ford Orion car parked in the hotel car park.

The hotel's owner, Colin Beattie, said: "They kept saying, 'It's the real thing, it's the real thing,' several times. Everybody got out."

He continued: "People were shocked because they felt quite comfortable with the ceasefire but this was more than some of them could take."

One Austrian tourist remarked: "I don't think I will come back again. My wife is very afraid now. The circumstances are not very good to come to Northern Ireland. Maybe next time I will make a cruise in the south of Ireland."

No organisation or codeword was mentioned when the warning was given, the RUC said. But security sources have linked the bomb to an anti-ceasefire Republican group, the Continuity Army Council (CAC).

The wreckage of the car after the controlled explosion

The CAC bombed the nearby Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen in July last year, during the clashes which followed the Orange Order march at Drumcree.

William Thompson, the Ulster Unionist MP for West Tyrone, said: "It's the same old thing. Paramilitaries with guns and bombs may decide to have talks but the problem in Northern Ireland is that there are those who will take their place."

The incident is likely to reinforce Unionist demands that there must be some form of decommissioning of paramilitary weapons once Sinn Fein is admitted to the all-party talks, which begin on 15 September in Belfast.

One SDLP politician said that if the bomb was not the work of the IRA, then it should not hold up the process of relaxing security measures in the province. Mark Durkan, a negotiator for the SDLP, told the BBC's Today programme: "This one incident shouldn't be used to hold up all the positive responses that should be made to the IRA ceasefire, just as continuing fringe loyalist activity by loyalist paramilitaries who don't agree with the loyalist ceasefire has not been allowed to hold up some of confidence building for loyalists."

The northern chairman of Sinn Fein, Gerry O'Hara said groups still engaged in the armed struggle should stop. "Sinn Fein has offered to speak to anyone who has concerns about the current situation," he said.