PORTADOWN. Northern Ireland, July 6: Armoured cars were deployed at every road into this predominantly Protestant town and helicopters kept watch from above as authorities tried to prevent a repeat of the widespread rioting that occurred last year over an annual march, reports AP.

Security was heavily reinforced Saturday In advance of a planned march Sunday by the Orange Order. Northern Ireland's main pro-British Protes-tamt fraternal group. The group planned to march through Portadown. Including a Catholic neighbourhood where IoceiIs have vowed to block Garvaghy road.

Mo Mowlam, the British minister responsible for governing Northern Ireland, and Chief Constable Ronnie Flan-gan. commander of the 12.000-strong police force, tried to persuade Orange leaders to back away from a confrontation.

Expecting trouble, British troops and police were deployed in a ring of armored cars at every road Into this predomi-

nantly Protestant town southwest of Belfast.

Two Royal Ar Force helicopters kept watch from above. Armored cars monitored traffic at the main entrance of Garvaghy Road. And Grenadier Guardsmen with camouflage-painted faces patrolled on foot near the Anglican church at Drumcree, north of Portadown, which is the focal point of the annual Orange march.

Last year, as Catholic residents mounted a protest on the pavement, police blocked the Orangemen outside the Anglican church a half-mile (just under a kilometre) before they reached Garvaghy Road. For four nights, the Protestant mob there swelled behind lines of barbed wire, and Protestants elsewhere rioted and blocked roads, the main airport and port.

Judging that the situation was going out of control, the police reversed their decision and dragged protesters from Garvaghy Road to force the Orange march through. Catholic areas then erupted into three nights

of fiercer rioting.

The weeklong carnage left two dead, hundreds wounded and more than 30 million dirs In property wrecked.

Since then, the Orange Order which has 80,000 members and played a key role in founding Northern Ireland as a Protes-tant-majorlty state in 1920 has come under mounting pressure from Protestant church and business leaders to avoid a repeat.

The County Armagh branch of the order, which includes Portadown, on Friday offered a scaled-back version of their intended parade: Only one British flag and no Protestant politicians would lead the march along Garvaghy Road, and two bands would play no music as they passed through . the Catholic neighbourhood.

But the protest leader, former Irish Republican Army prisoner Breandan Mac-Clonnaith, emphasised that "no Orange feet" would be permitted on the road unless Orange leaders agreed to meet him for direct talks.

Mirroring the wider dispute that has prevented peace nego-tiations between Portestant leaders and IRA supporters, the Orangemen have refused because of MacClonnalth's criminal record.

A hard-line faction within the Orange Order called The Spirit of Drumcree in honor of last year's showdown has gathered growing grassroots support for its message that any compromise is too much. Spirit of Drumcree leader Joel Patton has repeatedly demanded that the order's soft-spoken leader. Grand Master Robert Saulters. resign.

The Orange Order was founded near Portadown in 1975 following skirmishes between Catholics and Protestants over land and lobs. It Is institutionally linked with the Ulster Unionist Party, the main Protestant party, which has 10 of Northern Ireland's 18 lawmakers in the British Parliament. Party leader David Trimble has previously championed the right of Orangemen to inarch down Garvaghy Road