ON TUESDAY the mayor-elect of Haverfordwest denied that he condones terrorism after remarks he is said to have made when meeting the leader of the controversial Shia group Hezbollah, were published by a Lebanese news agency.

It was during a recent visit to southern Lebanon as a member of a delegation from Churches Together in Wales (CYTUN), when the group met with Hezbollah leader, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, that Rev Christopher Gillham, is said to have made the controversial statement.

The news agency quoted him as saying: "If I would be born again in Lebanon, I would want to be a Hezbollah man."

However, Rev Gillham told the Western Telegraph that he had been misunderstood, and that what he had actually said was if he had been born in Lebanon he could understand why he would have joined the Hezbollah organisation.

He went on to say that, like the IRA, the radical Shia group had both a military wing and a political wing and that he felt the social work done by the political wing was worthy of deep admiration.

However, he denied that Hezbollah, sometimes known as the Party of God and Islamic Jihad, is a terrorist group calling them instead 'freedom fighters'.

He said: "It is not an act of terrorism for a man to take up arms to defend his home and I can certainly see why they would want to do that. If I was born out there I would feel the same.

"The Israeli occupation was incredibly cruel. When they withdrew they left the country in a terrible state."

The comments attributed to Rev Gillham, via the news agency, have angered Narberth Baptist Fellowship which feels that the remarks could be misconstrued as representative of CYTUN.

Secretary of the fellowship, Martyn Williams, said: "Narberth Baptist fellowship wishes to make it clear that this is not so. We offer no support to murderous terrorists and roundly condemn those who do so."

Rev Gillham was leading a delegation to renew old friendship with Christian minority groups in the Lebanon and Syria.

The group also looked at the good relations between Christianity and Islam in the two countries.