The only non-sectarian party in Northern Ireland is to be excluded from crucial talks drawing up a programme for devolved government, it emerged last night.
Alliance Party leader David Ford criticised the British government after learning that his party would not be invited to next week's Programme For Government meeting in Belfast.
He said this was another example of the marginalisation of his party, which has resulted in a senior member of his team resigning in disgust.
"Whilst I am happy to remain distant from the sectarian dogfight and making the case for building a genuine future including power-sharing, I think it is a bizarre example of how disorganised the government is," he said.
"I was told today that I was being 'uninvited' and the simple position is that at the time of the St Andrew's Agreement the expectation was that we would be preparing for an executive of ministers to be formed on the basis of the current Assembly membership."
Officials are planning elections next year and the Assembly is expected to be restored by next March.
The British and Irish governments agreed a blueprint for resurrecting the institutions during a summit at St Andrew's in Scotland.
They envisaged the nomination of Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley as First Minister with Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness as his deputy.
The Alliance Party's representation at present does not entitle it to a ministership in the Executive but Mr Ford argued that nobody could rule out the possibility that his party would not secure a greater share of the vote next March.
The Programme For Government committee postponed its first meeting earlier this month after disagreements meant the DUP would not be represented. The party is at loggerheads with Sinn Féin over the issue of taking a pledge of allegiance to support the police service before accepting ministerial posts.
Republicans are consulting on policing but are calling for speedy transfer of policing and justice powers to the province, a move the DUP opposes.
PA