The Parades Commission last night gave permission for a controversial Apprentice Boys march on the planned route along the Derry city walls on Saturday.
Earlier, a meeting between the Apprentice Boys and the Bogside Residents' Group (BRG) broke up without reaching an agreement over a route for the parade.
The commission's determination did not impose any restrictions on the parade's route, but limited the number of bands to walk the city walls to one and asked participants to comply with a number of conduct conditions. The Apprentice Boys had wanted eight bands to walk the walls.
Other conditions include no music or excessive drumming. Marchers are also required to comply with the directions of marshals when the parade is passing the cenotaph through the diamond in the city.
The commission's chairman, Mr Alistair Graham, said the commission had weighed "all notified details of this substantial parade against the statutory criteria, just as we did, totally separately, for each of the very modest parades on the Ormeau Road and many rural towns around Northern Ireland".
"It is important for the way forward that the right to parade and protest is exercised not only peacefully and in a dignified way but, critically, within the law."
Last night's ruling followed the commission's decision to allow a feeder parade for the Derry march on the Ormeau Road in Belfast. The Lower Ormeau Concerned Community plans to protest the decision with rallies tomorrow night and Saturday morning. Earlier, Mr Donnacha Mac Niallais from the BRG said he was disappointed at the failure to negotiate a local agreement. The governor of the Apprentice Boys, Mr Alistair Simpson, refused to blame either side. Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness had earlier called on the leadership of the Apprentice Boys to reconsider the residents' proposals to break the impasse over this weekend's marches.
He said he believed the proposals could resolve the controversy surrounding Saturday's march in Derry, as well as feeder parades in the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast, Lurgan in Co Armagh and Newtownbutler in Co Fermanagh.
The SDLP mayor of Derry, Mr Pat Ramsay, appealed for restraint. "Obviously I'm disappointed as mayor of the city that the talks have concluded without a result," he said, "but I am happy that they have left the meeting in more of a positive note and my understanding of the meeting is that the main discussion did centre on the feeder parade, particularly on the Ormeau Road."
The Derry businessman who jointly chaired the talks between the Apprentice Boys and the BRG last night made a direct appeal to the Walker Club in Belfast not to parade down the Lower Ormeau Road.
Mr Garvan O'Doherty said the issue of feeder parades, such as the Walker Club parade which takes place prior to the main celebrations in Derry, was the cause of the controversies surrounding marches.
"We hope that the Walker Club will not go down the Lower Ormeau Road on Saturday, so as to ease the tensions," he said. "We need them to take a moral stand."