Mark James has been given the unanimous support of his fellow professionals following his unsavoury row with Nick Faldo, a decision which caused his antagonist to attack the European Tour for its handling of the matter.

"I'm very disappointed in the tour," said Faldo. "I'm stunned if they feel quite happy that their former Ryder Cup captain and chairman of their tournament committee can slag somebody off and it's okay."

James' role as vice-captain for next year's Ryder Cup had been called into question by Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros after the publication of his book on last year's match at Brookline, Into the Bear Pit. But last night the European Tour's tournament committee, of which he is chairman, voted 10-0 to keep James on.

"I have the full support of the committee," said the Ryder Cup captain, Sam Torrance, after the three-hour meeting at Loch Lomond. "Mark James will be staying as vice-captain. He is going to speak to Nick to sort out the problem."

James said he would try to speak to Faldo to "build some bridges".

"I'm happy for Sam that he's got the unanimous support of the committee," said James. "We want this matter to come to an end now. It's probably gone on longer than anyone who read the book expected it to. I'm just going to try to stop talking about it. We all agreed that would be a good idea."

Faldo reacted in the expected fashion. "To be honest, I'm stunned. The bottom line is that you can write a book like that and it does not matter. Fine. When I do my book I will say what I like and apologise two months later."

James intends to speak to Faldo in the next two weeks to try to clear the air, but when asked what he expected from that and what sort of relationship he had with James, Faldo answered: "I've never really had a relationship with him.

"I don't know what I'll say to him. How does he know what sort of captain I'll be? `I'm not interested in being captain until I'm 50. If he can change, so can I."

James was branded a bad boy of the 1979 match along with Ken Brown after being found guilty of misbehaviour. He was fined, while Brown was suspended.

Faldo added: "If this has not brought the game into disrepute why has this taken seven weeks to sort out? Surely they should have sat down straightaway and said that.

"It means I can say what I like. Release a book in December and have a free run - there's plenty to say."

Committee members Bernhard Langer and Jean Van de Velde, who have spoken out against James, were not present at the meeting, but according to James their views were expressed.

Torrance said he was pleased to have the full support of the committee. "Mark is going to have a chat with Nick and I hope that that will be the end of it."

James added: "I'm happy that Sam has had unanimous support in his choice. We all want to put this matter to bed. Some mud has been slung and we need to move on.

"The whole committee is aware of the views others hold and that this has been extremely distracting for sponsors.

"The unfortunate timing of the serialisation (during the tour's flagship event, the PGA championship) in May caused a fuss that nobody who has read the book could dream of.

"I'm surprised by the fuss. I'm not to talk about the `binning' of the letter again - I've talked enough. We all agreed that it would be a good idea to stop talking about it. We've now taken a stance. It has been detracting from our sponsors and I could have done without it.

"It's not been much fun, but I want to do what's best for the team and I am going to try to build some bridges."

James said he had no regrets and insisted that he had not, as had been claimed, betrayed anyone's trust. "I don't regret writing the book. I think some of it is funny and there's a lot of good in it. And absolutely I have not betrayed any trusts."