The Tβnaiste Ms Harney has criticised what she called "latent anti-Americanism" in the wake of the September 11th attacks.

At the annual Thanksgiving lunch of the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland yesterday, Ms Harney said there were those who believed there was "some sort of moral equivalence" between the acts of the terrorists and those of the US government. "I strongly reject that latent anti-Americanism that seems to regard what the American government does as evil, when it is the victim of evil," the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment said.

Ms Harney praised the determination and resilience of the US and its people.

"There is no country more robust to recover from the events of September 11th than the US," she said.

She also said that she saw the Republic as a transatlantic hub between the US and Europe and that the close business relationship between the Republic and the US was a two-way one.

"It's not just US companies which invest here. It's also about investment opportunities Ireland has gained in the US," Ms Harney said, noting that 69,000 people in the US now worked for Irish firms.

But Ms Harney, who in the past has appeared to be spiritually closer to Boston than Berlin, was also keen to emphasise her pro-European credentials. She criticised those who took a negative attitude to the European Union, describing them as wanting "to stop the world so they can get off".

"Our very economic standard of living is dependent on the EU," she said.

EU membership had made the Republic "more progressive, less nationalistic, less protective".

But she also said that, just because Irish people did not abandon their critical faculties, it did not mean they were not pro-Europe.

"We have to be able to question things without being put into boxes of zealots on the one hand and sceptics on the other," Ms Harney said.