A report by the official Xinhua news agency said rioters involved in the July 5 violence, China's worst ethnic unrest in decades, appeared to have prepared weapons in the days leading up to the unrest which left at least 192 dead.

Earlier on Sunday, the agency had quoted the chair of Xinjiang's government, Nur Bekri, saying police had shot dead 12 rioters amid the mayhem.

China has said the attacks by members of Xinjiang's Uighur minority, which targeted members of China's dominant Han ethnic group, were orchestrated by exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer.

Kadeer, who is based in the United States, has denied the accusation.

Xinhua made no mention of Uighur claims that the riots were touched off by a harsh police response to peaceful protests by Uighurs upset over a recent factory brawl in southern China that left two Uighurs dead.

Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking central Asian people, complain of repression under Chinese rule.

Instead, Xinhua said rioters instigated violent acts in more than 50 locations throughout Urumqi, suggesting that weapons were stockpiled ahead of time.

"Knives became hot-selling products two or three days before the unrest," it said, citing local businesses.

It also said stones that were hurled at targets or used to bludgeon victims were not of the sort commonly found in Urumqi, implying they had been trucked into the city in large numbers beforehand.

Rioters also appeared to have a surprisingly keen knowledge of how to quickly ignite the fuel tanks of buses and other vehicles, Xinhua said.

The report, based mostly on the accounts of unnamed witnesses, provided no hard evidence for the claims.

Thousands of Han Chinese armed themselves with clubs and other weapons and marched through Urumqi seeking vengeance on Uighurs in the days after the unrest, but were mostly thwarted by a huge security force.

earlier related report
Security tight as mosques open in China's Urumqi
Security forces armed with automatic weapons and wooden clubs fanned out in China's restive Urumqi city Friday as worshippers descended on mosques for the main Muslim day of prayer.

Muslim Uighurs heading to prayers had to pass rows of security forces, an AFP reporter witnessed, as Chinese authorities sought to prevent any repeat of the ethnic bloodshed that has blighted the city in recent weeks.

Many mosques were closed on Friday last week for the first main prayer day following unrest that broke out in the capital of China's Xinjiang region on July 5 and left at least 192 people dead.

The city's White Mosque in the Uighur district overflowed with worshippers, with many lining up prayer mats on the sidewalk outside, while around 200 paramilitary forces watched from across the road.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said all 433 mosques in the city were open on Friday.

An AFP journalist at the White Mosque said the worshippers left after afternoon prayers without incident, walking past two surveillance vans parked in front.

Moments before prayers concluded at the White Mosque, a platoon of paramilitary troops marched past worshippers kneeling on the sidewalk.

Salahudin, a Uighur merchant, said prayers remained firmly under government control.

"The imam only says things that support the government," he told AFP. "People are still afraid."

Most shops along the district's main streets closed during prayers.

Away from the mosque, the streets were quiet except for patrols of paramilitary troops.

The July 5 unrest, the worst ethnic violence to hit China in decades, began with a peaceful protest by Uighurs but quickly turned violent. Uighur mobs attacked members of China's dominant Han ethnic group.

Chinese authorities say most of the dead were Han, and that more than 1,600 people were injured that day.

Thousands of Han Chinese retaliated in the following days, arming themselves with makeshift weapons and marching through parts of Urumqi vowing vengeance against the Uighurs. Sporadic unrest continued for days.

Violence broke out again on Monday, when police shot and killed two knife-wielding Uighurs and wounded another who had been calling for "jihad" at the White Mosque, according to officials cited by state media.

Uighurs, many of whom have complained of repression under China's 60-year rule in the huge region of mountains and deserts bordering central Asia, have accused Chinese forces of opening fire on peaceful demonstrations.

Exiled Uighur leaders say the number of people killed is far higher than the official tally and that there were also attacks on Uighurs in other parts of Xinjiang.

earlier related report
Uighurs in Kyrgyzstan pledge solidarity with Xinjiang
Pro-Uighur activists in Kyrgyzstan pledged Sunday to protest the bloodshed in China's Xinjiang region as soon as the presidential polls in the ex-Soviet nation this week are over.

"Kyrgyzstan's Uighurs will begin to conduct protests against China's genocide policies against Uighurs in Xinjiang immediately after the presidential elections," said Rozmukhamed Abdulbakiyev at a ceremony in memory of those slain in China earlier this month.

Xinjiang, the remote northwest corner of China and homeland of the Muslim and Turkic-speaking Uighurs, came to international attention when riots broke out in its capital Urumqi on July 5 leavingt 197 dead, according to an official toll.

Abdulbakiyev said that activists would refrain from protests before the vote -- expected to hand an easy victory to incumbent President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Thursday - so that they would not be interpreted as provocations against local authorities.

"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has openly denounced China's policies and thousands of demonstrators in Kazakhstan have also came out in support of Xinjang's Uighurs. It's our turn now," Abdulbakiyev said to strong applause from nearly a thousand Uighurs at the ceremony.

An Uzbek deputy Ernest Akramov, the only official present at the ceremony, warned the activists that excessive emotions might lead to "provocations and bloody conflicts."

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