The Orange Order said the ruling was "unacceptable"

Nuala O'Loan was speaking after a meeting with Orange Order officials to discuss the policing of parades.

She said they had "expressed concern" about whether police "acted in accordance with legal advice" at a parade in east Belfast on 12 June.

The police said they impartially upheld the law, and the legality of previous parades and protests was a decision for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Earlier, Belfast Grand Master Dawson Bailie said the Parades Commission's re-routing of the Whiterock parade in west Belfast was "unacceptable".

The commission ruled marchers would not be allowed to pass through security gates at Workman Avenue, on to the Springfield Road at Saturday's parade.

Whiterock meeting

Members of District No 9, Whiterock, have also met to discuss the determination.

The Whiterock march is one of a series of parades by Protestant Orangemen which culminates in the biggest demonstrations on 12 July.

Last year, the commission initially barred Orangemen from walking down part of the Springfield Road during the parade.

However, the day before it was due to take place, that decision was reversed.

The parade passed off peacefully.

Individual lodge members in east Belfast have been questioned by police about alleged breaches of Parades Commission rulings.

However, the Order said the parades under investigation were legal and it is angry that the police have been pursuing inquiries.

Rev Mervyn Gibson of the Orange Order said: "The PSNI continue, even until Saturday past, to pursue individuals with a view to prosecution what they now know and have known for some time to be legal parades.

"We call on the PSNI to clarify this situation regarding pending investigations and prosecutions that are causing so much hurt and stress."

'Rewarding violence'

DUP North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds blamed the Parades Commission for creating tension and called for it to be scrapped.

"When one witnesses the sort of scenes we saw in Ardoyne on Friday, where a parade was attacked by republicans for all the world to see, it is outrageous that the Parades Commission should come out the very next day and reward that violence by rerouting the Whiterock parade," he said.

The Irish minister for justice, Michael McDowell, accused nationalists of "gratuitous violence" at Friday's parade against Orangemen who had "complied with the Parades Commission's ruling".

The Parades Commission was set up in 1997 to make decisions on whether controversial parades should be restricted.

Each year, Orangemen commemorate Protestant Prince William of Orange's 1690 Battle of the Boyne victory over Catholic King James II.