US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to arrive in Belfast as part of a four-day trip to Europe.
It is understood she will meet Northern Ireland's first minister and deputy first minister, and attend an Ireland Fund dinner at Titanic Belfast.
It could be one of her last foreign engagements as Washington's most senior diplomat.
Her visit comes amid tensions over the decision to stop flying the Union flag at Belfast City Hall every day.
There were minor disturbances in Ballymena on Thursday evening by loyalists protesting against the decision by Belfast City Council.
On Wednesday night, a loyalist mob set fire to an Alliance Party office in Carrickfergus in County Antrim and the home of two councillors in Bangor was attacked.
Meanwhile in a separate development, police arrested four men after a bomb, which police said was "a viable improvised explosive device", was found in a car in Londonderry's Creggan area on Thursday evening.
The PSNI said the arrests were part of an investigation into ongoing dissident republican activity.
"Start Quote
End Quote Mark Devenport BBC NI political editorShe is coming here at a time of increased tension"
Some residents had to leave their homes while the Army dealt with the bomb.
On Thursday, Mrs Clinton attended a security conference in Dublin as part of a four-day trip that will also take in the Czech Republic and Belgium.
Her term ends next month, and she has said she does not want a second term.
During her trip to Belfast she is expected to discuss the peace process and economic opportunities.
But disturbances in Northern Ireland this week in which police and premises of the centre-ground Alliance Party have been attacked were embarrassing ahead of the visit.
Analysis: Dissident republican activity in Derry
Andy Martin BBC Ireland reporter
Police described the bomb as an improvised explosive device (IED), which is a term which is usually associated with a pipe bomb device, which would suggest that this isn't a huge bomb.
There is a significant pocket of dissident republicans operating within Londonderry and there has been for some time. They were loosely aligned to the Real IRA but we believe that grouping is now part of what is commonly referred to as the new IRA.
It has joined forces with some groups in east Tyrone and in pockets of Armagh - the group is believed to have been responsible for a number of incidents over the past number of months.
Christmas lights
BBC Northern Ireland political editor Mark Devenport said: "Hillary Clinton has gone around the world like other US diplomats and pointed to Northern Ireland as an example of how trouble spots can peacefully negotiate out their differences," he said.
"Yet she is coming here at a time of increased tension, not just involving those on the margins of the political process like dissident republicans, but a dispute which has very much involved the main parties at Stormont, so the timing is difficult.
It will be Mrs Clinton's eighth visit to Northern Ireland - her second as Secretary of State. Her previous trip was in 2009.
She accompanied her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, three times during his time in office from 1993 to 2001.
The most memorable was in 1995 when the couple turned on the Christmas lights in Belfast just a year after the first IRA ceasefire.
In 1999 Mrs Clinton gave a keynote address to a women's conference and in October 1997 gave the Tip O'Neill Memorial Lecture at the University of Ulster's Magee campus in Londonderry.
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