SDLP leader Mark Durkan has accused Peter Robinson of trying to engineer a review of the Good Friday Agreement.
On Tuesday the First Minister delivered a speech in Belfast, in which he called for a change to the voting systems in both the Assembly and Executive.
Mr Durkan said the British or Irish governments should be aware the DUP would demand a high price for the devolution of policing and justice.
"I think what Peter Robinson was possibly trying to create a situation that was tantamount to a virtual review of the Good Friday Agreement as the context in which the DUP would consider the devolution of justice and policing," Mr Durkan told UTV.
"That has happened in this process before", he added.
"They put all sorts of other issues on the table to be battered and bundled, and of course the two governments have made the mistake of always allowing that to happen."
Mr Durkan also accused Mr Robinson of ''double-standards'' after blocking the SDLP from the new justice ministry while attempting to change voting systems at Stormont.
On Tuesday, Mr Robinson insisted the present system entrenched division and was undemocratic.
"As a moral and practical matter community designation (the present system) is fundamentally flawed," he said.
"It is deeply undemocratic; it entrenches community division and hinders the development of normal politics in Northern Ireland, and in practice means that the votes of all Assembly members are not equal."
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness later accused him of playing fantasy politics, insisting the rights and safeguards secured under the Good Friday Agreement could not be changed.
Reacting to the political fallout following Peter Robinson's comments, the Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said it was time for the Executive to act in the interests of everyone.
"I think that we're out of touch with where the public are," Sir Reg said.
"At the present moment we have a disaster in our education system; we have the most difficult economic situation Northern Ireland has faced in many years. I do not think that the general public want to go down that road at this stage. I think they want to see their politicians working on their behalf and delivering on their behalf. That is clearly not happening", he added.
© UTV News