The Police Authority has said a new survey shows that renaming the RUC will have little effect on the way officers are perceived by most Catholics.
More than 1,200 people took part in the survey commissioned by the authority. The body said it accepted the "vast majority" of the Patten Commission's recommendations but warned it should "proceed with caution" on certain issues.
The survey found that 45 per cent of Catholics would support a renamed RUC more than they did the present organisation. Only a third of all respondents thought support from the Catholic community would increase following a name change.
The majority (51 per cent) believed there would be no change in support among Catholics.
A total of 47 per cent believed a new name would decrease support for the force among Protestants: 41 per cent of Protestants and 57 per cent of Catholics held this view.
A third of all respondents believed the implementation of the Patten report would have no effect on the quality of the police service, with a third thinking it would get better and a fifth saying it would get worse.
The majority of Catholics, 56 per cent, thought the Patten reforms would lead to an improvement in service, compared to only 16 per cent of Protestants.
The survey showed both communities supported 50-50 religious recruitment into the RUC, with 80 per cent of Catholics in favour and 52 per cent of Protestants. A third of Protestants disagreed with this recommendation.
Proposals to enable district councils to levy up to 3p in the pound on rates to finance increased grassroots policing were also unpopular with 57 per cent.
The Police Authority chairman, Mr Pat Armstrong, warned Mr Peter Mandelson: "We are fully committed to the need for a balanced police service which is representative of the whole community.
"But we are opposed on moral and practical grounds to a form of positive discrimination which would stand the principle of appointment on merit, as it is commonly understood, on its head, and could lead to serious alienation in the Protestant community.
"We also feel it would place a burden on those Catholics joining under these arrangements who might perceive themselves as having to struggle against a `second best' label."
Mr Armstrong said the Police Authority welcomed the Patten report. Better training and management, as well as increased powers for the authority in its new guise as the Supervisory Policing Board, were among the 175 recommendations welcomed.
But controversial issues such as recruitment, the RUC's name and symbols and the prospect of Sinn Fein sitting on district boards should be examined with great care by the Northern Secretary, Mr Armstrong said.
The hurt caused to unionists by scrapping the RUC's name, emblems and oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth should not be underestimated, he added.