The postponement of plans to reduce the number of Northern Ireland's councils from 26 to 11 will be formally announced later, the BBC understands.
Environment Minister Edwin Poots is expected to say the transition will now happen in 2015.
Nine million pounds has so far been spent preparing for the changes.
The plan would create four nationalist-dominated councils in the west and south, and six predominantly unionist councils in the north, east and centre.
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