Leaders of the loyal orders have told the SDLP they cannot yet talk directly to Sinn Féin or to nationalist residents about disputed parades.
The Orange Order, the Royal Black Institution and the Independent Orange Order met a party delegation headed by Mark Durkan at Stormont, the first time such talks have been held. The orders described the meeting as "constructive" and more talks are planned. Robert Saulters, the Orange Order's grand master, said he would "never say never" about official contacts with republicans or residents' groups.
The talks with the SDLP are seen as politically significant ahead of the summer marches and following a troubled 2005 season. Protracted rioting flared after the Whiterock parade in north Belfast last September and there was serious trouble in Ardoyne on July 12th.
Mr Durkan said afterwards he had urged the loyal orders to talk to the Parades Commission, the independent body which rules on contested marches, and which the loyal institutions have boycotted since its inception in 1998.
However, Mr Saulters said: "Our grand lodge decided in 1998 that this legislation was deeply flawed. We consider [ the Parades Commission] to be part of the problem."
Mr Durkan said he could not give the loyal orders any "false expectation as to what can be achieved in our dialogue".
"We are not going to be a substitute for anyone else," he said. "We are not going to be a conduit for anything else. They can't use dialogue with us as a way to bypass existing bodies like the Parades Commission that have clear responsibilities. They can't use dialogue with us as a way of avoiding the reality of their own responsibilities for engaging with many other people in this community."
William Long, head of the Royal Black Institution, said he could not "in conscience" talk to republicans who endorsed violence. David McConaghie of the Independent Orange Order went further. "The Orange Order, during the course of the Troubles, had 310 members murdered. In July last year, when the IRA stood down, it said that the campaign was entirely legitimate."
This failure to apologise for "this slaughter" deserved to be utterly condemned, he added.