Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond was "cavalier" in his actions over a controversial planning application by US tycoon Donald Trump, according to a damning Holyrood report.

Mr Salmond showed "exceptionally poor judgment" at best and "a worrying lack of awareness about the consequences of his actions" , a committee of MSPs said.

Last night, however, the inquiry into the way ministers handled Mr Trump's application for a £1bn golf resort in Aberdeenshire had broken down into a ruthlessly partisan exercise.

The 55-page report produced by the parliament's local government committee was unusual in Holyrood terms in the way it carried dissenting positions on almost every paragraph. The three SNP MSPs on the committee dissented from the most critical findings.

Duncan McNeil, the committee convener, felt justified in saying that the First Minister had been "extremely unwise" to get involved in the Trump saga.

He also referred to "a lack of a sufficient audit trail and consideration of the issues at hand" and a decision on the Menie Estate based on "five-minute phone calls".

This gave the committee grounds for its full report.

The report came up with the key verdict: "The committee believes that far from taking a precautionary approach, the First Minister was cavalier in his actions and displayed, at best, exceptionally poor judgment and a worrying lack of awareness about the consequences of his actions."

The committee said it did not accept the Trump development was of "national importance," nor that it was of such significance as to merit "one in a million" treatment. The report suggested that the purpose of the Trump meeting with Mr Salmond and the chief planner on December 3 and 4 was not to seek advice on legal processes but to emphasise the Trump Organisation's concern at the November 29 refusal of planning permission and to ask if Mr Salmond could set up a meeting with chief planner Jim MacKinnon.

The majority of MSPs on the committee said they were "very concerned" that John Swinney did not obtain legal or official advice in writing before deciding to call in the application. They said it was clear that the application was called in because it had been refused, adding: "It is the view of the committee that the Cabinet Secretary acted inappropriately and potentially opened his decision to legal challenge."

In their criticism of Mr Salmond, the MSPs said that as a constituency MSP for Gordon he was not obliged to meet Trump's representatives, had no particular planning expertise, and could have declined to meet them.

He had never acted in this way on any other development, had no detailed knowledge of the planning process, and acknowledged he was constrained in what he could discuss.

Given all this, said the report, it was "astonishing" that Mr Salmond did not perceive there was a risk his actions might be open to question and that there could be a legal action.

Aberdeen North SNP MSP Brian Adam said: "The report is a political exercise and nothing more - the last gasp of an opposition grudge. The whole thing has just descended into farce and split down party lines.

"The world has moved on since this time- and money-wasting fishing exercise, which found nothing and caught nothing.The report is embarrassing and contradictory."