China says has broken up terrorist group

Chinese security forces have broken up a terrorist group and will give details later this week, the ministry of public security said on Tuesday.

The ministry made the brief announcement in an email to journalists inviting them to a news conference, the subject of which would be "circulating a notice about the ministry of public security solving the case of a large terrorist organisation".

A ministry spokeswoman declined to give further details, saying they would be revealed at the briefing on Thursday. 

China blames what it calls terrorist groups operating in the restive far western region of Xinjiang for attacks on police or other government targets. 

It says these groups espouse violent separatism and that some have links with other Central Asian militants or al-Qaeda.

While the Olympic Games were held in Beijing in 2008, there were at least three attacks against police and paramilitary troops near Xinjiang's southern frontier city of Kashgar, which China attributed to Uighur separatists.

The Muslim Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to the region that often chafes under Chinese rule and resents an influx of Han Chinese workers from central China. 

Exiles say China whips up the threat posed by separatists to justify often harsh crackdowns in the region, and that there is little evidence to support claims of al-Qaeda influence.