The DUP has said that Mr David Trimble should expel it from the North's Executive if he is genuinely concerned about cabinet confidentiality. The party's two ministers have been denied access to cabinet papers because they are refusing to play a full role in the Executive.
Concerns had been raised that the DUP would release documents to the public. The party is considering legal action on the matter.
Mr Peter Robinson, the Minister for Regional Development, and Mr Nigel Dodds, the Minister for Social Development, have also been barred from attending intergovernmental meetings.
Mr Dodds said: "The petty and childish behaviour of the Trimble/Mallon/McGuinness axis in seeking to disrupt the work of our departments illustrates just what a farcical system they created and now purport to run.
"If they really believe their own propaganda, they should take the next logical step and table a motion for the DUP's expulsion. That would take real courage and true decisiveness."
He accused Mr Trimble of "clasping the hand of Martin McGuinness and striking out against fellow unionists".
Mr Robinson said it was significant that the North's First Minister preferred to take action against the DUP while Sinn Fein remained in the Executive despite allegations that the Provisional IRA was responsible for the murder of Mr Ed McCoy a fortnight ago.
"It is not Trimble's intentions to quarrel with his republican team-mates," he said.
Mr Dodds said he and Mr Robinson had not acted in any illegal way while in office and had operated within the rules agreed by Mr Trimble himself.
They had run their departments efficiently and for the benefit of everyone in the North. "Yet Mr Trimble devotes all his energies to trying to sideline the DUP whilst turning a blind eye to the murderous activities of the IRA". Mr Robinson said if it had really been the DUP's intention to break cabinet confidentiality, he could have released documents he received as a minister which could have been "embarrassing" for Mr Trimble.
However, there were other ways to expose what was happening in government, such as through the work of the Assembly's ministerial scrutiny committee.
Mr Robinson claimed Mr Trimble was attempting to create the "illusion" that he was "delivering a blow" against the DUP's two ministers. "The truth, as everyone knows, is that he will be unable to do most of what he claims and the only shot he is capable of getting off will miss Nigel and I and hit the services the community receives."