The North Belfast Assembly member said police officers alerted him to a threat from the Orange Volunteers, a disparate group of loyalists opposed to the peace process, on Wednesday.

The former republican prisoner revealed it is the second such warning he has had in the last number of weeks.

He added: "The threat stated that 'Sinn Féin Chief Gerry Kelly is going to be shot within 48 hours - Orange Volunteers - No Surrender'.

"This is the second threat made against me in recent weeks and obviously, for the sake of my family I must take it seriously. In saying that, no threat will detract me from working on behalf of those who elect me and in working to advance the peace and political process in Ireland."

Police would not comment on the incident - stating that it was not policy to give out details on individual security cases.

A PSNI spokeswoman said: "We do not discuss the security of individuals. However, if we receive information that a person's life may be at risk we will inform them accordingly. We never ignore anything which may put an individual at risk."

Mr Kelly is the latest Sinn Fein representative to be warned about threats to their life in recent months.

Dissident republicans and hard-line loyalists have both been blamed.

In December four members of the party received a telephone death threat from a caller police are understood to have traced to southern Spain. The warning that Stormont Assembly member Paul Butler and three of his colleagues in Lisburn council would be shot imminently was apparently made from a phone box in Cadiz, near Gibraltar.