BEIJING (AFP) — Delegates to China's parliament have vowed to step up a crackdown on ethnic unrest, separatism and religious extremism in the western region of Xinjiang, state press said Saturday.

"We will never slacken in our fight against these evil forces," the China Daily quoted Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region as saying.

"We should stay on high alert all the time to crush any attempt to damage Xinjiang's development and stability."

Speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing National People's Congress, Bekri said extremism, terrorism and separatism were the greatest threats to Xinjiang, an area bordering Central Asia that makes up one sixth of China's territory.

The region of 20 million people is largely populated by ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities which have traditionally opposed Beijing's rule of the area and clamoured for greater autonomy.

"As the country's frontline in battling terrorism and separatism, Xinjiang's anti-terrorism fight is of crucial importance to the stability of the whole country," the paper quoted Hou Xiaoqin, a political commissar of the Xinjiang armed police, as saying.

Hou said the biggest threat came from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a little known grouping that is listed by the United Nations as an international terrorist group.

East Turkestan refers to two short-lived republics established in Xinjiang between 1930 and 1949 by the Muslim Uighur minority, which continues to harbour independence ambitions.

The comments follow a crackdown in the regional capital of Urumqi last month when police raided the home of suspected separatists killing two Muslims and arresting 15 others.