Additional police units, specially trained to deal with crowd control and riots, are to be drafted into Portadown. The move follows a week of violent clashes between loyalists and the security forces along Portadown's Northway, the outward route of the Drumcree Orange parade. A number of police and civilians were injured in the disturbances, during which petrol-bombs and high-powered fireworks were thrown at the RUC and army.
The deployment of additional RUC personnel is an indication that the security forces are concerned that the protests in Portadown could get out of control.
In an attempt to avert further trouble, 60 members of an RUC special support unit are expected to arrive in the town today. They will be followed by three specially-trained mobile support units.
More than 2,000 British soldiers are believed to be on standby to return to the North if there is no resolution to the deadlock over the Drumcree parade.
The recent clashes in Portadown are an indication of a hardening of attitudes over the disputed parade among Orangemen and residents of the Garvaghy Road. The residents last week demanded a blanket ban on almost all Orange parades in Portadown. The Orange Order responded by restating its determination to walk the Garvaghy Road on July 4th.
The number of protesters at Drumcree has been considerably boosted by the statement last Monday from the spokesman of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, that no Orange parade would be permitted on the Garvaghy Road this year.
It is expected that the numbers at Drumcree will increase further in the run-up to the June 30th deadline set by Portadown Orange District for talks aimed at breaking the deadlock.
The next major test for the RUC will be on Saturday, when junior Orangemen parade in Portadown. Last year's junior Orange parade was attacked by nationalists when it paraded along the Lower Garvaghy Road.
The Parades Commission will this year, for the first time, issue a ruling on the junior Orange parade. Its decision is due today.