China issues wanted list for Olympics terror plott

Eight alleged "terrorists" are Xinjiang separatists said to had plotted to attack the Beijing Olympic Games.

China released on Tuesday a wanted list of eight "terrorists" it said had plotted to attack the Beijing Olympic Games and were bent on separating the restive western region of Xinjiang.

It said the eight had also carried out attacks but did not say where.

Resource-rich Xinjiang, strategically located on the borders of Central Asia, has been rocked by sometimes violent unrest this year, including the killing of 16 armed police just before the August Olympics, blamed by China on Muslim militants seeking an independent state they call "East Turkestan".

China called for international cooperation in tracking down the eight suspects, all Chinese citizens.

"We hope that relevant international governments and law enforcement departments can carry out investigations according to the law, and if they are discovered, that they be arrested and handed over to China," the police said in a statement.

Many of Xinjiang's 8 million largely Muslim Uighurs chafe at the strict controls on religion that China enforces and resent influxes of Han Chinese migrant workers and businesses.

Uighurs make up slightly less than half of the region's people, and most of the rest are Han.