It turns out the problem was being caused by the addition of a Logitech Optical Wheel mouse being plugged in prior to booting and the system then detects it and altered the XF86Config file accordingly, however X didn't like the way it was configured. Having both a touchpad and usb mouse pIugged in required the alteration of the relevent sections of the XF86Config files as follows to correct the problem:
...
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Anaconda Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection
...
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
...
Sorry for asking a question that gets asked all the time, hope the solution that worked for me can help others.