DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, has said it was nonsense to think the Northern Ireland Executive would be up and running by November.
Mr Paisley made his comments ahead of this week's meeting between the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Prime Minister Tony Blair where the pair are expected to announce measures to restore the assembly.
"I think that to say that they are going to call the Assembly together to try and get the executive set up is absolutely nonsense," Mr Paisley told the BBC.
Mr Paisley claimed the foundation for such a decision was not even laid.
"The foundation, of course, must be the end of terrorism and must be that this is on a solid democratic foundation. "Now they haven't done that. So that is not going to work."
Mr Paisley suggested giving a restored Northern Assembly limited powers even if a devolved government cannot be formed, a move that Sinn Féin and the SDLP are vehemently opposed to.
"I think we are not going to have an executive," Mr Paisley said. "But why do they not turn the Assembly into a body that has power to consider important matters and let the government know what the elected representatives feel about these matters?"
The North Antrim MP's comments come as Sinn Féin and the SDLP continute to criticise any suggestion that there could be a shadow Assembly ahead of full-blown power sharing.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan yesterday accused the Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain of trying to acquire new powers in a move which could undermine the Belfast Agreement. He added that the DUP did not have rights of ownership over the Agreement.
Sinn Féin's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness last week said that Sinn Féin would not be willing to take part in the Northern Ireland Assembly if there was no prospect of having an Executive up and running by the summer.
Mr McGuinness said the two governments should scrap the Assembly in the summer if the DUP were still refusing to agree to the election of the first and deputy first ministers and the Executive.
The prime ministers are expected to advocate a two-phase approach to restoring devolution when they meet later this week. It is believed the north's 108 Assembly members will be recalled in May and given six weeks to form a power-sharing executive featuring the DUP and Sinn Féin.
If that proves impossible, the British government is expected to introduce new legislation changing the rules which govern the Assembly and which will park the body through the difficult summer marching season in the North.
The Assembly would be recalled in September and given what the parties believe will be a November 24 absolute deadline to set up the executive. It is possible that in the weeks leading up to the deadline Assembly members would be given a programme of work at committee level.