The annual Apprentice Boys march in Derry has finished without any violent disturbances.

Extra police and soldiers are expected to be drafted into north Belfast tomorrow in preparation for a controversial loyalist parade through a nationalist area.

REPUBLICANS and loyalists have been involved in high-level talks in a bid to end violence in north Belfast, it emerged last night.

Tension is rising in north Belfast after a Parades Commission ruling that an Apprentice Boys march can use a road near the nationalist Ardoyne district.

The Parades Commission has ruled that an Apprentice Boys march can go ahead on the Crumlin Road in Belfast this Sunday, despite objections from local nationalist residents.

A Sinn Fein delegation from north Belfast is due to meet the Parades Commission later today to ask it to re-route a contentious loyalist march away from nationalist areas.

A decision to allow loyalists to march along a flashpoint nationalist area in the North has been upheld.

There is growing opposition to the Apprentice Boys march on the Lower Ormeau