Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain was accused today of letting Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists pull his strings on how he handled the situation.
Unionists and nationalists clashed today on the committee about who its chair should be.
The Democratic Unionists proposed Assembly Speaker Eileen Bell, but she is believed to have turned their suggestion down.
Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness suggested the chairmanship should either be jointly chaired by his party and the DUP or rotated between the parties.
With Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern due to travel to Belfast at the end of the month to spearhead two days of talks with the parties, Mr Hain set up the Preparation for Government Committee to identify issues which will need to be addressed if power sharing is to return.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan angrily to reports that the DUP told the British government it wants a two-week extension of the November 24th deadline set by London and Dublin for achieving power sharing at Stormont because no business had been scheduled for the Assembly over the past fortnight. The SDLP leader also criticised Mr Hain's approach towards the Assembly
"The only people the Secretary of State should be dictated by is the general public and the electorate who want the institutions restored," he said. "It's about time the Secretary of State stopped letting parties pull his strings."
Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness, who led a delegation which included fellow MPs Michelle Gildernew and Conor Murphy, accused the DUP of not being serious about re-establishing the political institutions and sending a low-level delegation to the meeting. "This is ridiculous," the Mid Ulster MP said. "The DUP won't make a serious effort to engage in the Preparation for Government Committee. Peter Hain needs to make it clear that if the DUP are unwilling to engage then he is prepared to call time on the Assembly."