The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, will meet Orange Order leaders in London tomorrow in an effort to resolve the Drumcree crisis.
Official sources in Belfast warned against expectations of a quick breakthrough, and the Northern Ireland First Minister, Mr David Trimble, said progress in resolving the deadlock was "very slight".
Efforts to move negotiations along continued last night. Mr Trimble met senior Orangemen, including the Rev William Bingham and the Assembly member Mr Denis Watson in Co Armagh.
At the same time Mr Seamus Mallon, Deputy First Minister, went to a meeting with the Garvaghy residents' spokesman Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith in Portadown.
About 100 people gathered outside a local Jesuit centre during Mr Mac Cionnaith's 90-minute meeting inside with Mr Mallon, who was accompanied by his SDLP colleagues, Assembly members Brid Rodgers and Alex Atwood.
Mr Mac Cionnaith emerged from the meeting first. He would not comment in detail on his exchanges with Mr Mallon, saying only "We were looking at a number of different scenarios. It was just a general conversation about our current situation."
But when Mr Mallon emerged from the building shortly afterwards he was heckled by the crowd of residents, some of whom shouted repeatedly "no sellout".
One person shouted that Mr Mallon was a "Catholic unionist" and another said "Go back to Markethill, where you belong."
"We had a very long serious meeting," Mr Mallon said. He declined to make any further comment as the residents heckled him all the way to his car.
It appeared that one option Mr Mallon sought to discuss at the meeting was the possibility of residents accepting a limited form of the Orange march down the road, but this could not be confirmed last night.
The residents held their own meeting later, after which Ms Rosemary Nelson, the residents' coalition solicitor, said their rights "are being very seriously abrogated".
"They are the ones being made to suffer," she said.
It was expected Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon would hold a joint press conference this morning to explain their latest moves.
Last night the press officer for the Portadown District of the Orange Order, Mr David Jones, welcomed the meeting between Mr Mac Cionnaith and Mallon. "Any initiative which succeeds in getting us down the Garvaghy Road is welcome," he said.
"Unfortunately it seems there is not a lot of common ground", he added, referring to the scenes which greeted Mr Mallon as he left the meeting.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said in Portadown yesterday that sooner or later the Government would have to change its mind on the parade.
"I think the outcome will be these men going down the road anyway. And they'd be far better letting them down before the 12th of July because anybody here who has any imagination knows what's going to happen on the 12th of July".
The UUP deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, said the parade should go down the Garvaghy Road and that the Assembly was in danger due to the decision to block it.
The stand-off enters its fourth day this morning. For the third night, there were loyalist roadblocks and attacks on the RUC in Protestant areas in many parts of Northern Ireland.
RUC figures showed that in the three days up to 6 a.m. yesterday, there were 246 attacks on the security forces, 42 RUC men were injured, 330 petrol bombs were thrown, 101 cars were hijacked, 39 houses and 71 other buildings were damaged and 63 were people arrested.