An SNP minister has said she will write to two fellow MSPs to apologise after she branded them evil in a Scottish Parliament bar.

Community Safety Minister Roseanna Cunningham launched the attack on the pair last week.

An SNP spokesman said the minister had meant to make a light-hearted comment to the Tory politicians who were sitting with an SNP MSP as she left Holyrood's bar on Wednesday evening.

But one of those she offended, Mary Scanlon, said the outburst was unnecessarily unpleasant and totally unwarranted.

Ms Cunningham also faced calls to consider her position as Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, in which she has responsibility for tackling anti-social behaviour, in the wake of the incident.

The SNP has now confirmed Ms Cunningham, MSP for Perthshire South and Kinrossshire, will be writing to the Tory MSPs, including former Holyrood speaker Alex Fergusson, to apologise.

The party spokesman said: "Her intention was to make a lighthearted comment to a fellow SNP MSP and some Tory members as she was leaving.

"There was certainly no offence intended and of course she apologises if any was taken. She is now writing to the Tory members concerned to make that clear and to apologise for any offence."

The party also insists Ms Cunningham was not drunk at the time. A Scottish Conservatives spokesman have said that while the incident was "unfortunate, as far as we are concerned the matter is now closed."

The row came just weeks after First Minister Alex Salmond pledged to draw a line under abuse of opponents by some SNP members.

The incident is understood to have occurred in the bar in Parliament's main Garden Lobby.

At the time Ms Scanlon and Mr Fergusson were sitting with SNP MSP Christine Grahame, discussing plans to visit a sick colleague.

The SNP's chief whip Joe FitzPatrick is understood to have apologised at the time for the outburst.