Chinese president breaks off trip to Italy

BEIJING: China’s President Hu Jintao, on an official visit to Italy for the G8 summit, has decided to return to China due to the situation in Xinjiang where riots have claimed more than 150 lives, local news agency reported early Wednesday.

Hu left for home early Wednesday “due to the situation in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region” the agency reported.

In Rome, the Tang Heng, the first political counsellor at the Chinese embassy in the Italian capital as said Hu decided to curtail his trip “given the worsening of the disorder in Xinjiang.”

The summit opens later Wednesday in the central Italian town of L’Aquila and although China is not a member of the Group of Eight, much of the talks was to include emerging powers including Beijing. State Councillor Dai Bingguo would take part in the summit on Hu’s behalf.

Chinese troops poured into the restive city of Urumqi Wednesday in a massive show of force, but fresh unrest flared as Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs armed themselves with makeshift weapons.

In Urumqi, the capital of the remote northwest Xinjiang region where 156 people died in riots on Sunday, army helicopters circled overhead as thousands of soldiers and riot police filled the city shouting out “protect the people”.

Thousands of riot police wearing helmets and carrying shields lined up on a main road in Urumqi dividing the city centre from a Uighur district, with columns of soldiers behind them.