Three days of concentrated talks on the Drumcree standoff are planned for late next week in a last-ditch effort to resolve the long-running dispute. The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, is to invite the Orange Order and the nationalist residents of Garvaghy Road in Portadown to attend "very intensive" proximity-style talks on June 3rd, 4th and 5th.
The invitations are due to arrive early this week. There have been difficulties arranging a venue, however. The Garvaghy Road residents rejected Hills borough Castle, and the Orangemen turned down the Interpoint building in downtown Belfast.
The talks are to be chaired by the industrial mediator, Mr Frank Blair (no relation of the Prime Minister) who is head of the Scottish branch of the UK's Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.
In a separate development, the North's First Minister-designate, Mr David Trimble, is due to hold a further meeting of elected representatives from the Portadown area, including the Garvaghy residents' spokesman, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith.
However, it is understood the Trimble meetings have achieved little in concrete terms although the fact that the First Minister was prepared to meet Mr Mac Cionnaith was seen as significant. The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland has ruled out meetings with the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, although there are indications of a possible rethink on this issue.
Previous sessions of proximity talks - whereby the disputing parties are in the same building but not the same room - were held in Armagh last July and just before Christmas in Co Antrim. They failed to produce agreement.
Mr Frank Blair has been involved in separate meetings with the two sides, following which he drew up a list of the issues at stake. The consultation phase is now set to give way to a period of negotiations where, sources said, he would "try and agree some sort of outcome".
The mediator operates on a semi-independent basis, with the support but not the direct involvement of the British government. Recent talks involving the Northern parties at Downing Street were interrupted to allow Mr Frank Blair to brief the Prime Minister for half-an-hour.
However, hopes for the success of the three-day talks are not high. There will be unspecified changes in the format of next week's discussions. Informed sources said they would not be proximity talks "as known in the past" although the parties would be "in close proximity". Senior sources said the mediator "may be going to put something on the table".
The press officer of the Portadown District of the Orange Order, Mr David Jones, said last night that a decision on whether to accept the invitation would be made when the letter arrived. "We would look at the situation as it pertains at that particular time, give it due consideration and make up our minds at that time."