NATIONALIST residents in Portadown, Co Armagh, have condemned the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, for insisting the Orange Order must be allowed to march down the Garvaghy Road.
The Garvaghy Residents Coalition has accused Mr Trimble of "playing politics" and of being more interested in confrontation than solution.
In an interview published in the Irish American Post, a bimonthly magazine, Mr Trimble said there could be no compromises over Drumcree. The Orange Order would march down the Garvaghy Road.
"I can not see any rational basis on which anyone would expect anything else to happen. There is a duty on the authorities to make sure the Queen's highway is available to all."
Mr Trimble said the Order had previously compromised over parades in Portadown. It had nothing left to give. He called the Garvaghy Residents Coalition "a militant republican grouping who are intent on causing trouble".
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said Mr Trimble had learned nothing from "his disgraceful antics at Drumcree over the past two years". He must recognise nationalists would not be "walked over ever again"
The Alliance Party said Mr Trimble's comments were "highly regrettable".