During the debate on the Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Bill, British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, gave a hushed and sombre House details of the Omagh bombing.
"The whole House will want to join me in our disgust, outrage and condemnation of those responsible," he said to murmurs of support.
"The resulting carnage was inevitable. We reject with contempt the excuses of those who have tried to explain it away.
"We extend our deepest sympathies to the victims of this wicked attack and to all their families and friends."
The bombing had been a "cynical attempt to provoke a violent reaction from others.
"The aim of the bombers was not just to kill innocent people but to strike at the very heart of the peace process.
"The best response we can give is not to abandon the Good Friday agreement but to carry it forward vigorously, to deny them the objective they seek, and to continue to work for a better future for Northern Ireland that puts the past behind us."
Mr Blair praised the efforts of Northern politicians to find a way forward and welcomed Sinn Fein's announcement that Mr Martin McGuinness will sit on the decommissioning commission. Decommissioning was vital part of the agreement and there would be difficulties ahead, "but we have no doubt things are on the move and moving in the right direction".
But steps must be taken to deal with the "unrepresentative minority who want to use violence to undermine" a peaceful future.
Mr Blair said the new measures "are a proportionate and targeted response to deal with small evil groups of violent men who seek to wreck the hopes for peace which the great majority yearn for and have voted for".
The "horrific" bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania had rammed home the need for action and vigilance worldwide. There were few more important challenges to democracy than terrorism, he said.
"We must fight it vigorously wherever it appears, while holding fast to our democratic principles and the rule of law."
Mr Blair condemned the Omagh bombing as "a deliberate attempt by a small group of extremists with no moral or political support to wreck the Good Friday agreement".
He defended the government's new legislative package to tackle terrorism as a "proportionate and targeted response to deal with small and evil groups of violent men who seek to wreck the hopes for peace which the great majority yearn for and have voted for".
And he told the bombers directly: "You sought to wreck the agreement, and you have failed. You sought to divide the community, and you failed. You sought to win new support, and you failed.
"You failed because violence and terror represent the past in Northern Ireland, and democracy and peace represent the future."
Mr Blair said: "We had to make a judgment about internment - we've made it clear that we don't rule anything out forever.
"But my judgment is that the history of that as it operates here and in the Irish Republic is different."
The measures were designed to deal with terrorist groups without provoking a backlash in other parts of the community.
To claims that the measures were "hastily conceived", he said: "I believe that again, as a result of having targeted this very carefully, we have actually steered the right course which is between a knee-jerk reaction that introduces measures that aren't really thought through, and measures that will give us practical help and assistance in trying to deal with those people who are members of the relevant proscribed organisations."
Mr Blair said: "People expect us to do two things in the wake of Omagh: one is to take what security measures we responsibly can to deal with those small remaining groups engaged in terror and secondly to continue with the political process."
The Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, faced with a barrage of interventions from Labour MPs concerned that the Bill could put civil liberties at risk, stressed that the proposals were vital to outlaw terrorism for good.
His speech, opening the Bill's second reading debate, came after a row in which MPs from all sides complained about it being rushed through too quickly.
Mr Straw said that although the peace process was moving forward with the overwhelming support of both communities in Northern Ireland and the Republic, small splinter groups had shown they were ready to resort to "appalling and indiscriminate destruction", as in Omagh, to throw that process off course and "we cannot and we must not let such groups succeed".
The Bill targets members of specified proscribed organisations, notably, the `Real IRA', the Continuity IRA, the Irish National Liberation Army and the Loyalist Volunteer Force.
It allows statements by a senior police officer of the rank of superintendent or above concerning membership of a specified proscribed organisation to be admissible as evidence in court. Although not on its own sufficient to secure conviction, it will be an important element in any prosecution
It enables a court to draw inferences from a suspect's failure to answer questions in respect of that membership offence.
It amends the powers of arrest in the Prevention of Terrorism Act so that powers in Northern Ireland and Great Britain are more closely aligned.
This will mean that those suspected of membership of a proscribed organisation in Northern Ireland can be arrested on the same basis as in Britain. The same powers, including detention for up to seven days, will then be available.
Mr Straw said the proposed legislation was very important. Addressing critics of the international aspect of the Bill, he stressed: "Not only have we lost 28 lives in the North of Ireland - and I don't make this any competition . . . - but 10 times more lives were lost in outrages in Tanzania and Kenya.
"We would have been blind and deaf not to have recognised the need to act in respect of that as well as in respect of terrorism in the North of Ireland." Mr Tony Benn (Labour) asked if people who tried to topple Saddam Hussein or Libya's Colonel Gadafy would fall under the Act. He questioned whether it would apply to mercenaries, such as Sandline International, who were the focus of the recent arms to Africa affair.
Mr Straw said the Bill would "close specific loopholes".
A consultation paper on the future of antiterrorist legislation would give an opportunity for reflection on the practical impact of the particular changes in the Bill.
Mr Straw stressed the legislation was "tightly focused", adding: "It is undoubtedly tough, but it is proportionate.
"The measures being brought forward today in the Bill are targeted against groups which are not observing a full and unequivocal ceasefire."
The Bill gives the courts new powers to order the forfeiture of property following conviction of membership of, or support for, a proscribed organisation. Mr Straw insisted the Bill was consistent with the Government's commitment to human rights.
Mr William Hague, the Conservative leader, said the declaration by Mr Gerry Adams that "the violence we have seen must be for all of us now a thing of the past, over, done with and gone" should be welcomed.
But he stressed: "If Sinn Fein's words are to ring true, we must now look for the actual dismantling of the apparatus of terror which paramilitaries on both sides have held over the people of Northern Ireland for so long.
He asked Mr Blair: "Can you assure us that terrorist prisoners will not be released early until the process of giving up guns and bombs has actually begun?"
Mr Hague added: "Don't you agree that it was a mistake last autumn, as we argued then, to remove from our statute books the reserve power of internment - a power that is retained in the Irish Republic?
The Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Paddy Ashdown, said: "Perhaps out of the horrors of Omagh we are at last going to see a real and historic opportunity for the people of Ireland to come together to build a peaceful future."
He supported the sentiment behind the legislation, but raised concerns over the government's decision to add into it matters that were nothing to do with Northern Ireland.
He also warned that co-operation had at times in the past been difficult to sustain and said he hoped it would continue now.
The Democratic Unionist leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, spoke of the four men who were arrested after the Omagh bomb "who were known by Sinn Fein to be members of the so-called `Real IRA'. I refer to the O'Hagan brothers, Francis Curran and Shane Mackey.
"There is one question on the minds of the people of Northern Ireland today: if the laws you are saying we must pass today had been in operation could these four men have been kept in custody and brought to trial to prove whether they were guilty or not guilty?"
Mr Blair: "I cannot comment on individual cases. What I can say is that we believe this legislation gives us a far better chance to prove whether people are members of a proscribed organisation. The very purpose of this bomb, its very object, was to wreck the agreement and produce a violent reaction from others. We have a responsibility to make sure that does not happen."
Mr John Major, former prime minister, spoke of "horror of Omagh" but reiterated his faith in the Northern Ireland peace process.
Although pledging his support for the Bill to toughen the fight against terrorism in the wake of the Omagh atrocity, he warned that the measure "shows everywhere the signs of haste" and may in future be shown to be defective in some parts.
He warned, therefore, that because of the haste with which it had necessarily been brought forward, MPs might have to return to it later to correct any defects.
He spoke about the provision targeting groups planning offences overseas and warned this was "a very difficult and complex area to define".
On the question of early prisoner release, Mr Major said it was inconceivable that every prisoner convicted and presently in prison for past terrorist offences was a born-again democrat now safe for release. Some will not be safe for release.
"These releases will soon be accelerated in number. I hope, as they do so, that the government will make clear publicly - for I think the people of Northern Ireland will welcome such reassurance - how many cases were considered for release, how many are being released and how many have been found unsafe for release."
And he said the government must also consider the pressure for decommissioning in parallel with the releases.
"Yesterday, Sinn Fein said the war is over. This could be a Sinn Fein cynical manoeuvre to distance themselves from any further violence that may take place or it could be a genuine and worthwhile development.
The former Northern Ireland shadow secretary, Mr Kevin McNamara (Labour) called for the second reading not to go ahead despite sympathy for the victims in Omagh, Kenya and Tanzania.
He said the Bill contravened the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the procedures for the newly established International Criminal Court.
Mr McNamara argued that MPs had only had 24 hours' access to the draft legislation, that it gave powers to police officers which would not be justified by past miscarriages of justice in England and which failed to discriminate between democratic and undemocratic nations.
He highlighted the case of the Birmingham Six who were later freed despite the judgment of Lord Denning, former Master of the Rolls at the Court of Appeal in 1979.
Mr McNamara said the conspiracy offences were "too widely drawn". He said: "It's a very dangerous Bill we are discussing. We have been rushed into it . . . The government has put together two conflicting ideas."
Mr Michael Mates (Conservative), a former Northern Ireland minister, said the question of reintroducing internment was not a matter of judgment but a matter of fact.
"The only use of internment is its element of surprise. We all hope this is not going to happen. But if it did happen we would be in a ludicrous position. The Irish government would be able to act decisively and we would have to come here and debate it for a couple of days."
The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, Northern Ireland's First Minister, said the Omagh tragedy came as no surprise. "There had been over previous months a series of bombs planned and planted by the `Real IRA', including the one at Banbridge."
He called for safeguards for early-release terrorists to be scrutinised more carefully. Mr John Hume, the SDLP leader, said Omagh had been the worst atrocity in the 30 years of Troubles, and he had seen many deaths during those years.
Mr Hume said it was now "our duty" to work to implement that agreement which terrorists had tried to derail and to create a society in which people's differences were fully respected.