A cross-party committee of MPs has attacked the Foreign Office minister Keith Vaz for his handling of events in the Balkans.

MPs on the foreign affairs select committee rebuked the troubled minister for Europe, Keith Vaz, in a report published on Wednesday.

They said he had failed to display "a detailed grasp of the policy area issues" faced in the Balkans - an area covered by his responsibilities.

"His evidence session with us did not reveal a detailed grasp of the policy issues which the area faces. We are concerned that there is inadequate Foreign Office ministerial oversight of an area where considerable United Kingdom financial resources and personnel are committed and which has great relevance to the future stability of Europe, and where a window of opportunity exists to effect real change," the report said.

MPs called for ministers to visit the area immediately. "We recommend that a Foreign Office minister visit the area urgently, and thereafter should visit on a more frequent basis," the MPs concluded.

The committee widened its criticism to include foreign secretary, Robin Cook, saying that it was "deeply regrettable" that the only British minister to have visited Serbia since the fall of President Slobodan Milosevic in October was Richard Caborn - a junior trade minister.

Speaking on Wednesday, Donald Anderson, the chairman of the committee, sought to play-down the criticism of Vaz. He said the elements of the report which deal with ministers' should be kept in perspective.

But the Tories have seized on the report saying it is further evidence of how unfit Vaz is to hold government office.

Shadow foreign secretary, Francis Maude, said: "When I was minister for Europe if I had read a report like that about my performance I would have crawled off into the darkest corner I could find and hoped that people forgot about me. It is the most damning criticism of a minister's performance by a select committee I have ever seen."