China raises Xinjiang death toll to 184

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has raised the death toll from ethnic rioting in the far western region of Xinjiang to 184, the state Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

It said 137 of those killed were Han Chinese, who form the majority of China's population.

Forty-six were Uighurs, a Turkic people who are largely Muslim and share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia. They make up almost half of Xinjiang's 20 million people.

Xinhua said the other dead person from the violence that erupted last weekend was a member of the Hui Muslim ethnic group which is culturally akin to Han Chinese.

Chinese authorities had delayed releasing the ethnic breakdown of the dead, possibly out of concern it would further inflame the situation.

Beijing cannot afford to lose its grip on the vast territory that borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China's largest natural gas-producing region.

On July 5, demonstrations in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi by Uighurs protesting against an attack on Uighur workers in southern China turned deadly after police moved in. Shops and vehicles were burned.

Urumqi is still tense, with thousands of troops and police deployed throughout the city. A brief demonstration broke out on Friday, the main Muslim day of prayer, after some mosques were opened briefly.

Xinhua did not specify if any of the dead were killed on Tuesday, when Han Chinese residents of Urumqi took to the streets in demonstrations and in at least one instance clashed with Uighurs.

Many Uighurs resent controls imposed by Beijing and the influx of Han Chinese migrants, whom they say are the main beneficiaries of China's economic development.

China has blamed the unrest on "separatists," singling out exiled Uighur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, who lives in the United States. Kadeer denies any involvement.

On Friday, foreign reporters were ordered to leave Kashgar, an oasis city in southern Xinjiang that is still majority Uighur. Earlier this year, China announced plans to raze the city's historic center, citing concerns about earthquake safety.

The Uighur language is related to Turkish, and some Uighurs refer to their desert homeland as "East Turkestan."

On Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called the killings in Xinjiang a "genocide."

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby)