HONG KONG, CHINA, May 30, 2009 (AFP) - Leading Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner Martin Lee said Saturday he had been the target of an assassination plot during last year's elections in the city.

The veteran activist, who founded the city's Democratic Party, said two men had been arrested over the plot, which he said was foiled by police in August last year. They were expected to stand trial 'soon,' he added.

Police arrested an alleged hitman from the Chinese mainland and a Hong Kong accomplice and seized a pistol and ammunition, the South China Morning Post reported.

A police spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

'I was never afraid because, as a Catholic, death to me is just like pushing the door open to another life,' Lee told reporters, after a meeting with US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is on a trip to China.

Lee said he had been asked by police not to reveal the information, but had confirmed the story when contacted by a reporter this week.

The 70-year-old, who stepped down as a legislator last July, said he did not know who was behind the plot, but said the public exposure of the story may provide a warning.

'I hope the publication of the story will send a certain message to (whoever is behind the plot) that the police will still be trying to get to him or her,' he said, without elaborating.

The plot was uncovered during the 2008 Legislative Council elections, which are one of the limited voting opportunities in the city.

Universal suffrage was promised to Hong Kong when it was handed back to China by colonial power Britain, but no timetable was set and democrats have remained frustrated at the slow pace of constitutional reform.

Lee has also been one of the leading members of the campaign to remember and vindicate pro-democracy activists who led a six-week protest in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989.

The 20th anniversary of the crackdown on the protests, which left hundreds, possibly thousands, dead across the capital, will be marked on Thursday in Hong Kong with a candlelight vigil expected to be attended by tens of thousands.