The Human Rights Commission of Northern Ireland has attacked the government for not replacing commissioners who have left their posts.

Of the 13 members of the commission appointed when it was established two years ago, only six now remain.

The commission has described government inaction on the issue as "extremely regrettable".

Commissioner Brice Dickinson said that the neglect amounted to government interference in an independent human rights body.

"I think the government ought to have replaced commissioners when they resigned," he said in an interview broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster.

"Given that two commissioners left in September 2002 and no action has been taken since then, one can only deduce that there has been neglect by the government.

"I think the government hasn't paid the respect to the commission that it ought to have done."

The government refutes the charges, but has not committed to filling the vacancies until next year, when the terms of the current commissioners come to an end.

This raises the possibility that the Northern Ireland Office is getting ready to change the staff in its entirety.

The HRC has failed to win the confidence of any side in the Northern Ireland debate.

Unionists were unenthusiastic about the commission, and nationalists are sceptical of its real value.

Last October Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams described it as "a mess".