WASHINGTON (Dow Jones/AP) ? The US trustee overseeing Refco Inc.?s bankruptcy case has split a committee representing the company?s unsecured creditors, segregating members with a special interest in the affairs of a key Bermuda-based unit.

The trustee, Diana G. Adams, said in papers filed with the US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan late on Thursday that she favoured ?bifurcation? to enable committee members to represent their constituents more directly. She didn?t elaborate on her reasoning, but she made it clear that all nine committee members will continue to play a role in Refco?s Chapter 11 proceedings.

The reshuffling of the committee comes just weeks before a key deadline for the resolution of Refco?s ten-month-old bankruptcy proceedings. Committee members have said Refco?s ability to develop a Chapter 11 reorganisation plan to wrap up its bankruptcy case will depend on final negotiations involving a deal to distribute at least $2.3 billion to customers and creditors of the Bermuda unit, Refco Capital Markets Ltd.

That deal must be finalised by August 31.

Adams? move, as a result, sparked complaints from more than half of the committee members that she was gutting a committee that has played a central role in Refco?s bankruptcy case so far. Those members ? including the hedge fund VR Global Partners ? protested that the trustee had ?disenfranchised? Refco?s unsecured creditors by removing their representatives from the committee.

Adams, in papers filed on Thursday, didn?t address the committee members? complaints. Instead, she announced further changes to the committee structure. Having ousted six of the nine members last month, she restored the membership of one of them, Cargill Inc., on Thursday.

Refco?s main creditors committee, as a result, now consists of Wells Fargo Bank N.A., D.E. Shaw & Co., Esopus Creek Advisors and Cargill. That group consists mainly of Refco bondholders.

Meanwhile, the other previously ousted committee members were moved into a new committee, named ?the Additional Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Refco Inc.?

Their job, Adams said, will be to ?represent the interest of Refco Capital Markets Ltd. account holders? who assert claims against other Refco subsidiaries in bankruptcy. They will focus on investigating issues involving fraud, breach of contract or racketeering.

The ?additional committee? consists of VR Global Partners, Premier Bank International NV, Everest Asset Management Inc., Fimex International Ltd. and Markwood Investments.

Most of the committee members objected to Adams? changes, asking a judge to either reject them outright or postpone their implementation for at least 45 days. That request will be considered at a hearing scheduled for August 10.

Refco, once one of the biggest commodity brokerages in the United States, is winding down its operations. The company and nearly two dozen of its subsidiaries collapsed into bankruptcy amid an accounting scandal last year. The resolution of those cases has been complicated by dozens of lawsuits filed by customers and creditors of Refco Capital Markets Ltd.