But there are glimmers of hope showing how Han Chinese and Uighurs could live together and prosper in this vast region, even as tensions remain near boiling point after unrest that erupted a week ago left over 180 people dead.

Ever since the armies of China's late Communist leader Mao Zedong "peacefully liberated" Xinjiang in 1949, ending a short-lived independent republic, Uighurs have complained of repressive Chinese rule.

Even during China's phenomenal economic boom of recent decades and a sharper focus on Xinjiang's development from the central government, many Uighurs believe they are second-class citizens.

"The Han Chinese don't like us, we are always discriminated against and looked down upon," said Abdullah, a 28-year-old from Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang where at least 184 people died in the unrest between Uighurs and Han.

"Most Chinese companies don't want to hire Uighurs and if we do get jobs we are treated badly," said Abdullah, who works at a state-run steel factory.

He said Han workers received up to four times his monthly salary of 1,100 yuan (160 dollars) for the same work

In 1949, Han Chinese made up around six percent of the mountainous region's population. Now they make up at least 40 percent of the total.

"Inevitably this exacerbates ethnic tensions of the kind we have seen recently," said Nicholas Tapp, an expert in Asian migration at the Australian National University.

Han migrants are perceived by Uighurs as having kept the spoils from the region's economic success stories of oil, mining and agriculture. This anger is compounded by a feeling that their religion has been used against them.

Zabuti, a Uighur man who spoke to AFP outside the Zhela Mosque near the city's main bazaar, said few were surprised that the city's places of worship were closed following the violence.

"They said the riots were not linked to religious issues, but since the riots we have not been allowed to pray at the mosques," he said.

Despite the frustrations, some Uighurs have been able to integrate.

"In the past years, the minority peoples have got along well with the Chinese and our lives have got better," Akbar, a well-educated Uighur youth who spoke flawless Chinese, told AFP.

And some Han Chinese residents are determined that the city they consider home does not become segregated.

"I love this place, I love the Uighurs," said Han Chinese Zhang Xuesheng, a retired academic who has lived in Urumqi for most of his 52 years.

Zhang was speaking in the Uighur district after walking there to express his solidarity during the tense days after Sunday's initial unrest.

"I am not afraid to come down here. I think it was important for me to show the Uighurs we (Han) Chinese are not fearful and we want to be friends."

Zhang said many of the problems were due to the language barrier.

"This leads to a lot of misunderstandings and missed opportunities for exchanges," Zhang told AFP.

"Many young Uighurs today know that they will not get ahead if they do not speak Chinese... at the same time, it would be better if more Chinese who come to Xinjiang would learn the Uighur language".

Similarly, a 25-year-old Uighur man educated at a local Chinese school and at Shanghai university, said he had forged a happy career as an official for the city's government.

"In the office where I work, I am the only Uighur but we are all good friends," said the man.

But the events of the past few days, where he said he saw Chinese troops open fire on Uighurs, had tempered his feelings.

"I just don't like these government lies and the truth needs to come out (about those who were killed)," he told AFP.

The man spoke to AFP during a lengthy interview but his name has not been used to protect his identity.

The government has insisted the unrest, which began Sunday and left more than 1,000 injured, were neither religiously nor ethnically inspired, but were caused by outsiders seeking independence for Xinjiang.

But Wenran Jiang, a China expert from the University of Alberta, said the Chinese government would ensure a better future for Xinjiang by addressing the fundamental problems there, instead of looking for scapegoats.

"Beijing first needs to acknowledge there is a problem of ethnic tensions, rather than blaming it all on a small number of criminals supported from abroad," Jiang told AFP.

"Second, it needs specific efforts to find out why some policies designed for promoting minority benefits have not achieved their intended goals, and modify them accordingly."

On the ground in Urumqi, shop owner Maimaiti Jiang expressed similar sentiments more bluntly.

"We have faced decades of repression here in Xinjiang; sometimes things are bearable, at other times they are terrible," he said.

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