Talks may resolve Drumcree stand-off

THE bitter six-year stand off over the annual Orange Order parade at Drumcree could be resolved within weeks, the local Orange lodge said yesterday as marchers backed away from a confrontation with security forces.

As the tension drained from Northern Ireland's most controversial parade, attention switched to an initiative aimed at brokering a final settlement.

British PM Tony Blair's chief of staff Jonathan Powell, leading church and businessmen are all involved in efforts to break the impasse over the Orange Order's demand to walk down the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Co Armagh.