Later, the Mayor's aides contended that his policies had helped all the city's residents, including blacks. Those policies, they said, have drastically reduced crime in all neighborhoods and have generated thousands of jobs. They also said that the Mayor had helped Mr. Butts by supporting a plan by the Abyssinian Development Corp. to build a Pathmark supermarket in East Harlem, and had spoken twice at his church.

Rudy Washington, the Deputy Mayor for community relations and business services and the highest ranking black official in City Hall, said that he attributed the minister's remarks to a single policy decision by the Giuliani administration: to stall the development of the Harlem Center, a proposed retail and entertainment complex that the Empire State Development Corporation hopes to build on 125th Street and Lenox Avenue.

Mr. Butts was appointed to the Empire State Development Corporation by Governor Pataki in 1996. In addition, the Abyssinian Development Corporation -- an arm of his church -- is the co-developer for the Harlem Center project.

Mr. Washington said the city had not cooperated with the project because it would require the razing of a city-run parking garage and a few stores that have recently been turning profits. ''It would have have required putting out of business some businesses that are doing quite well,'' Mr. Washington said. ''I never even entertained the idea. It would tear down a whole block.''

It was unclear last night how the city could block the development of property that is owned by the state. Caroline Quartararo, a spokeswoman for the Empire State development corporation, would say only that ''if there are any issues that need to be resolved, we will work with the city to resolve them so that the community will benefit.''

And Mr. Butts denied the assertion from City Hall that his comments had any connection to the Harlem Center project. ''As far as I know, the Giuliani adminstration was cooperating on the Harlem Center,'' he said. ''I was not unhappy with the pace of the project or the administration's response. If anything has changed, it changed after the press conference.''

Since Mr. Giuliani took office in 1993, several prominent blacks have used confrontational language to criticize policies that they asserted were harmful to their community; both Mr. Sharpton and David N. Dinkins, the former Mayor, said that they have been leveling essentially the same charges against the Giuliani administration for years.