The SDLP and Sinn Fein will not encourage responses to newspaper advertisements for independent members of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, which will monitor the police service.
The advertisements call for nine individuals drawn from the public, private, voluntary or community sectors. The board will also include 10 political representatives from the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP, the DUP and Sinn Fein.
Sinn Fein's spokesman on policing, Mr Gerry Kelly, said the advertisement was "grossly premature". The SDLP's spokesman on policing, Mr Alex Attwood, said his party would not be taking up its three allocated posts.
A spokeswoman for the Northern Ireland Office said any further delay in establishing the board would delay the overall implementation of the Police Bill.
The British government has been accused by Senator Edward Kennedy of diluting policing reforms in Northern Ireland. Mr Kennedy, writing in the Washington Post, claimed in its Policing Bill it had made a number of "unwise concessions" to unionists and he called for the legislation to be returned to the Patten commission recommendations.
