The Ulster Unionist Party leader has described the personal attack yesterday by Dr Ian Paisley on the Minister for Foreign Affairs as a being "in poor taste".
"If this was a joke, it was a joke in poor taste. The comments paint a very poor picture of the kind of political discourse taking place at the moment in Northern Ireland politics," Mr Trimble said after a meeting with the British Prime Minister in London.
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Mr Trimble said it was an "ill-advised comment to make and conveys the worst possible image of Unionism."
"I was enraged when I saw that strange character from Dublin coming again to see us", Dr Paisley said at the launch of the DUP's election campaign.
"Somebody told me the other day that the reason his lips were so thick was that when his mother was bringing him up, he was a very disobedient boy. So she used to put glue on his lips and put him to the floor and keep him there, and that has been recorded in his physical make-up.
"What right has a Foreign Minister from Dublin to have a say in our affairs, our internal affairs? None whatsoever. Yes, away with him. If he wants to use his lips to better effect, he should do it somewhere else and do it with people of similar physical looks."
Mr Cowen deflected several invitations to respond directly, choosing instead to talk about the need for political stability and for the elections to go ahead.
"Those comments have been made, and I'm quite prepared to allow the discernment and judgment of the Irish people to decide their merits or otherwise."