China stepped up its battle against Muslim separatists on Monday as President Jiang Zemin (news - web sites) agreed to a pact with neighbouring Kazakhstan to fight terrorism and religious extremism.
China's top official in the northwestern region of Xinjiang called for intensifying a fight against the "three forces", which have been identified by state media as religious extremism, ethnic separatism and terrorism.
Jiang, who met Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Monday, said the two countries would sign an agreement to crack down on the "three forces", state television said.
"This is another important action taken by China and Kazakhstan to maintain regional security stability," television quoted Jiang as saying.
The report gave no details of the agreement.
The semi-official China News Service quoted Wang Lequan, Communist Party chief in traditionally Muslim Xinjiang province, as urging officials to step up their campaign against the "three forces".
"Xinjiang will keep up the pressure in cracking down on the 'three forces' from beginning to end to maintain social stability," the agency quoted Wang as telling a party meeting.
The moves came just days after U.S. rights envoy Lorne Craner visited the region, inhabited by Muslim ethnic Uighurs and growing numbers of migrant Han Chinese, to urge greater religious freedom and the release of political prisoners.
Washington added a group campaigning for an independent Xinjiang, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, to its list of terror organisations this year.
The U.S. move sparked concerns from foreign rights groups that Beijing might use this to justify a long-running crackdown on dissent in Xinjiang amid suspicions among some Western diplomats that it was politically driven.
Beijing has thrown its weight behind Washington's war on terror and urged the international community to support its fight against Uighur separatists.
One tactic has been to pressure Kazakhstan and other central Asian states to curb activities of groups affiliated with the East Turkestan movement.
China has accused Uighur separatists of joining forces with Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and of bombings and other violence.
But foreign rights groups say innocent Uighurs are stripped of their right to worship freely and they suffer persecution.
Craner, who met Chinese officials when he was in Xinjiang, said his talks on rights were cordial, but he had hoped they would be more productive.
He said reports of religious repression
in Xinjiang remain of tremendous concern to Washington and he would welcomed
future opportunities to discuss the issue.