Almost six hours of indirect talks between representatives of Protestant marchers and Roman Catholic residents ended with little or no progress and with little prospect of a breakthrough on the horizon, sources close to the negotiations said.

The negotiations aim to end the stand-off that began on July 5 when security forces in Portadown, southwest of Belfast, blocked Protestant Orange Order marchers from parading through the Catholic Garvaghy Road area.

The Bosnia-style ``proximity'' talks are not expected to resume until Monday because the Protestant side does not want to hold discussions on Sunday.

Sunday, the anniversary of the defeat in 1690 of King James' Catholic forces by the Protestant King William of Orange, is the highlight of the Orangemen's calendar, and for two days they will hold hundreds of paradesacross the province.

During Saturday, four-strong teams from the Orange Order and the Catholic Garvaghy Road residents' association held indirect talks via two ``facilitators'' in council offices in Armagh, a few kilometres from Portadown.

In a move designed to put pressure on the British Government, Portadown Orangemen applied to parade along the Garvaghy Road on Sunday. Orange Order spokesman David Jones said: ``If this application is turned down then the Parades Commission must take full responsibility for any violence that may happen at Drumcree.'' The Independent Parades Commission made the decision to ban the Orange Order parade from proceeding down the Garvaghy Road on July 5.

Fears are growing of an explosion of violence at Portadown, where tens of thousands of Orangemen are expected to converge this weekend after taking part in several other marches around the province.

Three N Irish children die in sectarian arson
BELFAST: Sectarian arsonists killed three Catholic children in anattack on a house in Ballymonev town early today, Northern Ireland police said. The incident was seen as an escalation of a week of upheaval in the British ruled province.

``I can now confirm that we are treating this as a brutal murder of three young Catholic boys in the Carnaney (Housing) Estate in a sectarian arson attack,'' police chief inspector Terry Shevlin told BBC radio. ``At about 4:30 this morning, persons unknown ignited some sort of device.... And it transpired that three young boys were burnt to death in the house.'' The children were brothers, media reports said. Three adults who were also in the house were taken to hospital. Shelvin said police officers were quickly on the scene but were beaten back by flames.

A security source said the fire took hold of the house very quickly.