Taipei has asked for US police protection for the daughters of Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou, after a death threat was made against them on the Internet, a report said Thursday.

The request followed concerns for the women, who live in New York, after a message titled "Killing Ma's Daughters" was found in a popular online chatroom, the EETV cable news channel said.

According to EETV, the message read, "Do you think everything will be OK when you are hiding in the United States?" It also called on those who consider themselves Taiwanese living in the US to "hunt the Ma sisters down and kill them."

The message, which was soon deleted, drew concern, as the women did not have bodyguards, the report said.

"We have notified relevant authorities in Taiwan and the US," Ma Ying-jeou's spokesman Lo Chih-chiang said, but he declined to comment on specific security arrangements.