OTTAWA -- Ottawa has included the Tamil Tigers on its list of terrorist groups, but the Canadian Alliance is calling for the inclusion of another Tamil group accused of raising funds for the Tigers and which last year hosted a dinner attended by two federal ministers.

The Alliance has been criticizing the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils (FACT) since Finance Minister Paul Martin and International Co-operation Minister Maria Minna went to one of its celebrations.

The Alliance said Mr. Martin and Ms. Minna should not support FACT, which Canadian and U.S. authorities have linked to the Tigers.

"It's no shame to say that they made a mistake," Alliance MP Jason Kenney said yesterday. "Perhaps they can say they were not fully informed about the nature of FACT when they attended that dinner, back away and apologize. But put FACT on the list."

When an entity is placed on the federal list of "terrorist individuals and organizations," financial institutions must freeze the entity's assets. The federal government had long resisted creating a list of terrorist groups but adopted the measure after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mr. Kenney said that he didn't make the allegations against FACT but that he repeated government information.

In a document filed before the Supreme Court of Canada this year, federal lawyers allege that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (Tamil Tigers) is a "terrorist organization" and that FACT is one of several "political and benevolent front organizations which support the LTTE [Tigers]."

The LTTE "raises money by relying upon the willing or unwilling expatriate communities abroad, such as the large number of Tamil refugees in Canada," the lawyers say.

Jim Peterson, secretary of state for International Financial Institutions, refused to answer Mr. Kenney's call in the House of Commons yesterday to include FACT on the government's list of terrorist groups. On numerous occasions, Mr. Martin and Ms. Minna have defended their attendance at the FACT event.

Liberal MP John McKay, whose Scarborough East riding has a significant Tamil community, said it is a "slam dunk" putting the Tamil Tigers on the terrorist list. "It's fundraising efforts here by FACT that is more problematic."

Mr. McKay, who was also at last year's FACT dinner, said he wants clarity on this issue.

The United States formally banned the Tamil Tigers in October of 1997, followed by Sri Lanka in January of 1998 and Britain in February of 2001. India has effectively outlawed the movement since the 1991 assassination of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, allegedly by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber.

The LTTE has regularly used suicide bombings in its campaign to establish an independent state for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority in the northern and eastern regions.