The RUC Chief Constable will proceed with a recruitment drive for members of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland in "days rather than weeks", despite the political objections from nationalist parties.
Sir Ronnie Flanagan said yesterday there was now "very little" between himself and the SDLP on the issue of police reform.
At a lunch for European journalists in Dublin yesterday, Sir Ronnie said he had agreed not to recruit until the new Patten arrangements were in place, but he was now forced to move because of the growing staff shortages.
"I would have hoped that we would be engaging in recruitment campaigns with the full endorsement of the nationalist community, unionist community, the Catholic Church, the republican community. If that is not forthcoming then I cannot wait much longer," he said.
The recruitment drive by a firm of consultants was to have been started in Belfast yesterday. The new intake will have a 50-50 Catholic-Protestant and male-female representation.
Sir Ronnie said the SDLP had "very understandable concerns [about policing] and I accept totally their sincerity, but I think, in respect of those areas that are within my control, we have very significantly narrowed the gap. I don't think, in fact, there is much between us at this stage.
"Indeed, in my view, though they may not look at it exactly like this, there is very little between us."
The SDLP's spokesman on policing, Mr Alex Attwood, said last night that while relations between the SDLP and the Chief Constable had improved, Sir Ronnie was mistaken when he said there was little ground between them.
Areas not mentioned by Sir Ronnie, Mr Attwood said, included the recruitment of a parttime reserve and the reduction of the full-time reserve; registers of police officers' interests; and North-South policing.
Earlier, speaking about the SDLP's position, Sir Ronnie said: "When they ask for clarity and certainty in terms of when Special Branch will be placed under the command of the officer in charge of Crime Branch, I am telling them that will happen with effect from April 1st."
He said there would be advertisements soon for a lawyer with specific human rights expertise. He would be closing Gough Barracks, the RUC holding centre in Armagh city, "in the very near future".
Mr Attwood said any recruitment or pre-recruitment campaign was "premature and likely to fall on deaf ears", unless a new beginning to policing was achieved "within days rather than weeks".