  We investigate multiparticle entanglement purification schemes which allow
one to purify all two colorable graph states, a class of states which includes
e.g. cluster states, GHZ states and codewords of various error correction
codes. The schemes include both recurrence protocols and hashing protocols. We
analyze these schemes under realistic conditions and observe for a generic
error model that the threshold value for imperfect local operations depends on
the structure of the corresponding interaction graph, but is otherwise
independent of the number of parties. The qualitative behavior can be
understood from an analytically solvable model which deals only with a
restricted class of errors. We compare direct multiparticle entanglement
purification protocols with schemes based on bipartite entanglement
purification and show that the direct multiparticle entanglement purification
is more efficient and the achievable fidelity of the purified states is larger.
We also show that the purification protocol allows one to produce private
entanglement, an important aspect when using the produced entangled states for
secure applications. Finally we discuss an experimental realization of a
multiparty purification protocol in optical lattices which is issued to improve
the fidelity of cluster states created in such systems.
