Nationalist political and community leaders have demanded that the RUC direct security measures against the Orange Order as it converges on Ormeau Park in south Belfast today and not against nationalist residents.
Around 20,000 Orangemen and tens of thousands of supporters will march to Ormeau Park after the Parades Commission decided to allow the order to switch the destination of its largest annual parade in the North.
Dozens of international observers will be on the lower Ormeau Road to monitor the situation. An SDLP delegation yesterday met the North's Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, at Stormont to express their anger at the decision.
They voiced concern for nationalist residents of both the upper and lower Ormeau Road. SDLP Assembly member Ms Carmel Hanna said: "We sought maximum reassurances about the policing operation.
"Security measures must be to police Orangemen and their supporters, not residents. There must be no curfew imposed on residents. Freedom of movement has to be ensured."
Mr Gerard Rice of the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community group said he did not want to see the area turned into "an army camp".
He added: "We are calling upon unionist politicians and the Orange Order leadership to deliver on the commitment they have made and to actively live up to their responsibility that the day passes off peacefully."
A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Office appealed to both Orangemen and nationalists to ensure there was no trouble. The UDA also issued a statement asking Orangemen and their supporters to act in an "orderly and disciplined" manner.
"Any display of violence or aggression will dishonour the objective of the demonstration and play into the hands of republican propagandists," the UDA said.
The order decided to switch its parade from its traditional "field" at Edenderry to Ormeau Park. The switch was in protest at the Parades Commission's decision to ban Ballynafeigh Orangemen from joining the main demonstration by marching down the nationalist lower Ormeau Road.
The order had applied to enter the park from the Ormeau Road but permission was refused. However, the commission decided the order could enter from the mainly Protestant Ravenhill Road, and hold a meeting in the park.
The commission chairman, Mr Alistair Graham, said he believed the new route was not contentious. The order had "gone to some length" to address concerns and he urged it to ensure a "well-controlled and dignified parade".
The decision was criticised by the SDLP, Sinn Fein and LOCC. The SDLP expressed its concern to the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan. SDLP Assembly member Dr Alasdair McDonnell said: "We fear this decision may have been based on political expediency.
"It has nothing to do with guidelines of protocol and the route is not traditional. The Orange Order has set out on a course of provocation and under the threat of intimidation it has forced the powers-that-be to adjust their original ruling."
The LOCC group said the order's willingness to completely change its route "totally demolished" its arguments that traditional routes were sacrosanct and could not be altered.
"In any future discussions with the Orange Order we will not be accepting arguments that traditional routes must be adhered to." However, the decision was welcomed by the Orange Order and the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, who said he hoped the day would pass off peacefully. The order's former grand master, the Rev Martin Smyth MP, denied the order was acting provocatively and insisted the parade would pass off without incident.
Several other contentious Orange parades will have restrictions placed on them. Orangemen in Newry, Castlewellan, Crumlin, Dunloy, Bellaghy, Derry, Stra bane, Keady, Pomeroy, Newtownbutler and Newtownhamilton will take alternative routes.
In Ballycastle, Coalisland, Castlederg and Belfast's Springfield Road and Ballysillan districts, Orangemen have been granted marches through contentious areas but are being asked to comply with the Parades Commission's code of conduct.
Orangemen in Co Armagh will stage their demonstration at Drumcree.
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein Assembly member Ms Bairbre de Brun said there was a "major problem" over decommissioning because of unionist and loyalist tactics.
Speaking on Sky News's Sunday With Adam Boulton she said she didn't know what any of the paramilitary groups would do, but said Mr Tony Blair had a duty to set up the new executive on Thursday. "He cannot keep on setting deadlines and then putting them off," she added.
The Ulster Unionist deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, dismissed opinion polls showing support for the two governments' The Way Forward document.
Speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme, he called the opinion polls in The Irish Times and the News Letter "the greatest lot of nonsense". He said the polls contradicted each other because the News Letter said 35 per cent of unionists supported the document, while The Irish Times found 65 per cent supported it.
"I find these opinion polls are crazy things," he said.