The behind-the-scenes clash between New York and New Jersey that is delaying construction at ground zero is escalating and going public, with a letter from the New York congressional delegation urging Governor Corzine to get with the program.

In a show of bipartisan unity, the 29 members of the New York congressional delegation asked Mr. Corzine to promote a “prompt rebuilding of the World Trade Center” over “any particular revenue goals.”

Earlier this week, Mr. Corzine said that he saw a plan that was not “encouraging” and needed to be “restructured.” He said cost overruns at ground zero could jeopardize other infrastructure projects and result in raising the area’s tolls.

The New York congressman who organized the letter to Mr. Corzine, Anthony Weiner, told The New York Sun that Mr. Corzine’s comments sounded like a “shakedown,” and that “parochial dollars and cents interests of New Jersey” are stalling progress at ground zero.

“Making a few extra dollars for New Jersey but letting this process drag on for months more is a shortsighted way to begin your administration,” Mr. Weiner said of Mr. Corzine, a Democrat and former Goldman Sachs executive who represented New Jersey in the Senate before taking over as governor.

In response to the letter, a spokesman for Mr. Corzine, Anthony Coley, said, “A fair deal is exactly what Governor Corzine is seeking for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.”

Mr. Corzine is in the midst of a fierce budget battle in Trenton, trying to sell a budget with big cuts and tax increases in an attempt to deal with the state’s deficit.

Developer Larry Silverstein, who controls a 99-year lease on office space at ground zero, has blamed ongoing delays in negotiations on the New Jersey members of the Port Authority’s 12-person board of directors, or commissioners. So have officials inside Mr. Pataki’s office. Mr. Pataki, the elected official who is working hardest to seal a deal, appointed the six New York commissioners. The six New Jersey commissioners were appointed by Governors McGreevey, DiFrancesco, and Codey.

Despite a strong push by Mr. Pataki, the basic framework of a deal was not agreed on yesterday, despite speculation that a deal would be reached in time for the monthly meeting of the board of the Port Authority, which must approve a new lease.

According to a source familiar with the negotiations, the state put forward a deal that would have involved a comprehensive reorganization of development rights at ground zero, with Mr. Silverstein giving up the Freedom Tower and another commercial tower planned just south of ground zero, known as Tower 5. The developer would agree to start Towers 3 and 4, commercial buildings planned for along Church Street, in summer 2007, and Tower 2, in the northeast corner of the site, in summer 2008. Mr. Silverstein would also share some of his billions in insurance proceeds and help pay for infrastructure costs of preparing the site. In exchange, Mr. Silverstein would receive a reduction in rent that he pays each month to the Port Authority, which owns the site.

According to the source, the New Jersey side of the delegation was unsatisfied with the amount of Mr. Silverstein’s developer’s fee, the amount of his rent reductions, and the return on the overall investment for the Port Authority.

In comments to reporters yesterday, Port Authority chairman Anthony Coscia, of New Jersey, and vice chairman Charles Gargano, a Pataki appointee, said that significant progress had been made and stressed the cooperation between the two states.

Mr. Coscia said: “I think the commissioners on this board from both New York and New Jersey have a common purpose, which is to see this rebuilding process go forward.”

“It’s not parochial at all,” he continued.

Mr. Gargano appeared more optimistic that a deal over a framework was close, even if the details of that deal had yet to be hammered out. “There are still some outstanding issues, and still some commissioners who want to fully understand it,” Mr. Gargano said.

Yesterday, in a statement, Mr. Silverstein said it “looked like a final, fair deal was at hand,” but that “the process has apparently gotten bogged down inside the Port Authority.”

At a press conference yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg denied that the issue of a proposed $6 billion rail link between Midtown Manhattan and New Jersey is involved in the negotiations within the Port Authority. He said he had “no knowledge” of the New Jersey board members objecting to a deal.

Mr. Weiner, who lost the Democratic nomination for mayor last year, said yesterday that Mr. Bloomberg’s increased involvement in his second term was generally a good thing, but he said, “It’s bad that he is gumming up the works on a plan that has been fully vetted.”

“In retrospect, he probably wishes he got involved in this process the day he got elected,” Mr. Weiner said.

Mr. Bloomberg has been more active in his second term in trying to influence the future makeup of ground zero. The city has held back its $1.67 billion share of tax-exempt Liberty Bonds in an attempt to compel Mr. Silverstein to agree to a plan that the city believes will be more financially feasible and completed more quickly.

The mayor justified the city’s role yesterday. “Larry Silverstein does have a right to have a say, but he’s not just a business guy, a developer who happened to have a lease on one little piece of property, and he can go and do whatever the law says. It is bigger than that,” he said.