Sinn Féin minister Mr Martin McGuinness was challenged today to state if the Provisional IRA is targeting loyalists in Belfast.
Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) leader Mr Gary McMichael issued the challengeafter it emerged police last night visited several loyalists in the city to warn them of death threats from a republican group.
But the RUC did not disclose whether the threat came from the Provisionals or dissidents such as the so-called "Real IRA".
Mr David Ervine MLA of the Progressive Unionist Party and Mr McMichael said today RUC officers visited at least 14 homes in south, west and east Belfast and in east Antrim.
Mr Ervinesaid six homes were visited in his East Belfast constituency.
Mr McMichael said police went to two houses in south Belfast, five in west Belfast and one in east Antrim.
Among those warned of a threat were loyalist prisoner Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair and another man also being held in Maghaberry jail, he said.
Mr McMichael said he was working on the assumption the threats were from the Provisional IRA.
He added: "I would like Martin McGuinness to speak on this matter and clarify whether the Provisional IRA is now targeting Protestants for assassination."
Mr Ervine said: "I find it incredible that when a Real IRA bomb goes off in a post office in London we seem to know it was them within a hour of it occurring.
"When a barrack-buster bomb is abandoned we seem to know it was dissident republicans within a half an hour.
"However when loyalists are threatened we are told only that it is republicans, but not from which quarter. It seems you have to be a journalist and not an Assembly member to elicit such information."
PA