Anti-agreement unionists say they will use remarks made by Mr Gerry Adams on the police in their campaign to urge the Ulster Unionist Council next Saturday to oppose returning to government with Sinn Fein.
Unionists reacted angrily to the Sinn Fein president's assertion that he cannot recommend nationalists joining or supporting the North's new police force on the basis of legislation published by the British government.
Mr Adams claimed the Policing Bill represented a departure from the Patten report, which proposed the RUC be renamed. However, in the legislation published last week, Mr Peter Mandelson deferred a decision on the new name. Ulster Unionists have been lobbying for the retention of the RUC's name, whereas nationalists have complained that this and other key recommendations of Patten have been substantially weakened.
Speaking in west Belfast yesterday, Mr Adams said: "The recently published Policing Bill does not advance the objective of a new policing service and there is no way at this time that I, or Sinn Fein, could recommend to nationalists or republicans that they should consider joining or supporting a police force as described in that legislation."
Mr Adams said the two governments had promised to implement the Patten report. "If Mr Blair is to keep to his commitment, he will have to do better."
The Northern Ireland Office declined to comment on Mr Adams's statement, but UUP MP Mr Jeffrey Donaldson said: "When UUC delegates gather on Saturday they should consider whether it is right to vote in favour of putting two Sinn Fein/IRA ministers back into government when those ministers are not prepared to give their support to the forces of law and order.
"It would be absolutely ridiculous if we had a situation where the minister in charge of the education of our children, or the minister in charge of health and public safety, was refusing to fully support or co-operate with the police."
Anti-agreement UUP Assembly member Mr Peter Weir said Sinn Fein was still an extremist party. "It is clear that despite the spin, Sinn Fein/IRA remain unreconstructed terrorists. They are clearly unfit for government, and unionists must reject returning them to the Executive."
UUP security spokesman Mr Ken Maginnis said Sinn Fein's stance was unsurprising. If the party could not recommend nationalists joining the Garda, it was hardly likely to urge them to join a Northern Ireland police force. DUP security spokesman Mr Gregory Campbell said there was clearly "no satisfying" republicans.
The SDLP last night said there were 44 defects in the Policing Bill and nationalists increasingly doubted the British government's commitment to the Patten report. Justice spokesman Mr Alex Attwood said: "There is a growing volume of criticism of this Bill for falling short of Patten. The government needs to understand one thing clearly.
"How it responds to these far-reaching criticisms of the Bill will help determine if there is a new beginning to policing, one to which the SDLP and the nationalist community can subscribe."
Asked to comment on Mr Adams's observations, a Government spokesman said reform of the RUC had to be regarded as a process. "At the end of the process the new police service for Northern Ireland will have to have secured the confidence of both communities and that is the acid test we will apply," he said.
The terms of the proposed legislation will not take full effect for about 18 months.