Nationalist and republican politicians have insisted that the British government fully implement the Patten report on policing.
Mr Seamus Mallon, the Deputy First Minister, met Mr Tom Constantine, the British government-appointed Oversight Commissioner for the implementation of policing reform at Stormont.
After the meeting, Mr Mallon said he had urged Mr Constantine to ensure the Patten report was implemented in full.
The SDLP deputy leader said he hoped that the Commissioner would receive full co-operation from all involved in the task of fully implementing the Patten report. "This is vital to ensure a new start to policing and the establishment of a police service that is both effective and acceptable to all," he said.
Mr Mallon expressed deep concern about the shape of the British government's police Bill. "We want this Bill changed radically. We want it more in tune with the objectives of Patten and this type of approach that Patten took," he said.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, also expressed concern, saying the Bill "did not keep pace" with the Patten report.
"On the contrary, his Bill emasculates these recommendations by diluting every proposition which aims to introduce democratic accountability," he said. "We will only be able to have faith in the utterances of the British Secretary of State if he changes the legislation."
Mr Adams said he hoped that if the Patten report was implemented in full, Sinn Fein could then urge republicans and nationalists to join the new police service.
The Northern Ireland Unionist Party, after meeting the Northern Ireland Office Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, said that the RUC's title was to be lost.
In London the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Mandelson, was told by the Sinn Fein MLA, Mr Gerry Kelly, that he would be making "another colossal mistake" if he ordered the Northern Ireland Education Minister, Mr Martin McGuinness, to fly the Union flag over his departmental buildings.