The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, has warned that the political process could stall if either pro-Belfast Agreement unionists or nationalists felt the process was running unfairly against them.
Mr Mandelson did not specifically refer to policing, but in a speech in Chicago yesterday he implicitly urged caution and restraint from nationalists in their demands for the full implementation of Patten.
Mr Mandelson exercised care in his choice of language, but elements of the speech appeared to be a veiled warning that nationalists were pushing unionists too far on policing.
In recent days the SDLP Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, and the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, were highly critical of Mr Mandelson's handling of the policing issue, arguing that he was constantly seeking to dilute Patten.
"On the political front we must guard against impatience and cynicism creeping in," said Mr Mandelson.
"The political parties must continue to concentrate their minds not on dogmatic point-scoring or on narrow sectional interests but on the interests of the community as a whole in Northern Ireland," he told the Royal Institute of International Affairs/Chicago Council for Foreign Relations.
"That means stretching further to see the other person's concerns and continue the process of give and take to maintain the confidence of both traditions in the agreement."
