Loyalist paramilitary groups have issued a warning that they will not tolerate looting and destruction in loyalist areas during the protest at Drumcree this weekend.
The UVF, UDA and the Red Hand Commando, groups currently on ceasefire, have said they are determined to prevent a repetition of last year's destruction in loyalist areas of east Belfast.
"We will not stand back and allow hooligans or looters who would use a situation like this to further their own aims," they said. The statement also asked people to stay calm and said if they wanted to protest for their civil rights and culture to do so peacefully.
Mr David Ervine, of the Progressive Unionist Party, said the organisations could not sit by and watch as loyalist communities were held to ransom by so-called loyalists.
"They are sick of the complaints from people who had to go and visit people in hospital, from people who were trying to make their way to and from work and found that their own people were causing them concern and dismay.
The Portadown Orangemen were expected to return to Stormont for further talks with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, ahead of their parade to Drumcree church on Sunday. A Parades Commission ruling on Monday prohibited their return route into the town via the nationalist Garvaghy Road. Mr David Jones, the spokesman for the Portadown Orange Order district, told The Irish Times the Orange delegation would take the Parades Commission's decision "as it stands" with regard to Sunday's parade. "It is the only way to look at it for the moment," he said.
He stressed, however, that Mr Blair was aware that the sooner the parade proceeded down its traditional route the better. "We have told him that we will try to ensure the protest remains peaceful," he said.
Responding to comments made by the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, that dissident loyalists intended to hijack the protest for their own violent ends, Mr Jones said he was not surprised at the statement.
"Ronnie Flanagan has blamed us for everything that has occurred in Northern Ireland over the last 12 months," he said.
The Orangemen had requested those interested in violence to stay
away. Their stewards would be marshalling the parade. "However, there is the reality that they can't be everywhere at once," Mr Jones added.
The chairman of the Parades Commission, Mr Alistair Graham, has welcomed the talks between the Orangemen and Mr Blair as a positive development.
Mr Graham outlined the commission's position in a letter in yesterday's London Times. "If they continue to engage, as they most recently have begun to, with a commitment to face-to-face talks, if they lift the ongoing protests and demonstrate commitment to a positive process - and, most importantly, should they suffer rebuff and prevarication from the residents' group - then the commission will be strongly influenced by this in the event of further applications."
He said on BBC Radio if the Orangemen continued to sustain dialogue over a reasonable period of time and were not received positively by nationalist residents, the Parades Commission would be "on their side".
"We are in favour of facilitating parades wherever possible, and if they meet the criteria we've laid down in various documents, they will get a positive response."