LAS VEGAS – A key Republican committee says it is troubled by the “ineptness” of the Nevada GOP and called the state party's attempt to choose delegates for next week's national convention “flawed, inadequate and unacceptable.”

A ruling from the Republican National Committee panel said the state party violated rules when it appointed, rather than elected, its group of 34 delegates and 31 alternates, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.

The RNC Committee on Contests was asked to review the delegates by a group of supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who argued they were shut out of the delegate selection process. The Paul backers elected a separate delegation to the convention in St. Paul, Minn., which also was rejected by the RNC panel.

The committee recommended a compromise list of delegates, which needs approval of the RNC credentials committee. The compromise list included at least four backers of Paul, a former presidential candidate who inched out McCain for second place in Nevada's January Republican presidential caucuses.

State and national party officials continued to haggle over that list Thursday.

The Committee on Contests wrote that it “rejects any process to select delegates and alternate delegates that restricts party grass-roots activists from participating in that process, as appears to be the case here.”

Zachary Moyle, the state party's executive director, did not respond to a request for comment.