Sinn Féin's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness has said dissident republicans have renewed threats to kill him. Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor, reports.
The Mid-Ulster MP said yesterday that the PSNI had warned him of a "substantially increased threat" to his life.
It is the latest in a long line of threats to leading Sinn Féin figures as the party prepares for a special ardfheis at the weekend that may change long-standing party policy on policing.
Mr McGuinness said he is taking the threats seriously but will not be deflected from his work.
"Over the past 30 years, Sinn Féin elected representatives and members have been murdered and targeted by those within the British system and their surrogates," he said.
"We did not allow those threats to deflect us from our work in bringing about Irish unity and independence and this latest threat will only serve to strengthen our resolve."
The party is currently conducting a series of public consultations about its proposal to join the North's new policing dispensation.
Pointing to this week's publication of Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's report into RUC-loyalist collusion, it is arguing that Sinn Féin involvement in the PSNI will prevent a recurrence.
Mr McGuinness and SDLP leader Mark Durkan have focused criticism on former special branch head and RUC chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan following Mrs O'Loan's report.
Mr Durkan said yesterday the British government should not accept any excuse of ignorance of collusion by the RUC leadership.
Heading a delegation to meet Northern Secretary Peter Hain about the collusion scandal, he said: "The [ British] government needs to alter its stance on the ombudsman's report," he said.
"It appears that Peter Hain has bought into Ronnie Flanagan's story that he knew nothing about collusion between special branch and Mark Haddock's Mount Vernon gang until he read the ombudsman's report. But Ronnie Flanagan can't say he didn't know. We know that Flanagan met with Raymond McCord in 1998 and the whole story of his son's murder was laid out for the chief constable. Two years later the Stevens inquiry met him to ask about the same case."