The Government, the SDLP and Sinn Fein have rejected Mr Chris Patten's call on them to encourage young people to join the North's new police force. They say more work needs to be done to make the force acceptable.
As pressure mounted on nationalist politicians to give their support to the new force, a Government spokesman joined the SDLP and Sinn Fein last night in resisting it.
Referring to Mr Patten's call on both communities yesterday to encourage young people to join, a Government spokesman said: "We are not in a position to make the recommendation that he is making."
Mr Patten's endorsement follows a similar one at the weekend from Senator Maurice Hayes, the prominent nationalist who sat on the Patten commission on police reform.
The endorsement from Mr Patten was welcomed yesterday by the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, and the First Minister, Mr David Trimble. Both seized on the endorsement of the new force to press nationalist politicians to support it.
However, a Government spokesman repeated the Taoiseach's statement from the weekend that more work was needed. "We need to work on the timetable for implementation of Patten, to look at the issue of flags and emblems and to ensure that such reassurance that can be offered to the nationalist parties is there, so that they can be in a position hopefully to recommend joining.
"If they are in that position, we will be there as well," he said.
Both nationalist parties are under pressure to nominate members to the Police Board - to which the new force will be answerable. Sinn Fein has already signalled its unwillingness to co-operate but the SDLP remains undecided.
Writing for yesterday's Belfast Telegraph, Mr Patten said: "Political parties and other community leaders should now be working to get their representatives on to the Policing Board and the District Policing Partnerships. They should now start to encourage youth from all parts of the Northern Ireland community to apply to join the police."
Mr Patten is understood to have consulted members of the commission beforehand.
A member of the commission, Prof Clifford Shearing, has strongly criticised the legislation in a newspaper article, claiming the commission's report had been "gutted". Speaking to The Irish Times at the weekend, he declined to say whether he would encourage Catholics to join the new force, adding it was "up to each person to decide".
Prof Shearing could not be contacted yesterday in the wake of Mr Patten's article. Two commission members, Dr Maurice Hayes and Mr Peter Smith QC, declined to comment. The remaining members could not be reached.