China has appealed to the international community to hand over eight Muslims from its restive far West who it says are wanted in connection with terrorist threats against the Olympic Games.

It is the first time that Beijing has issued a list of names of those wanted after at least four attacks in the westernmost Xinjiang region over the Olympic period left 33 people dead in guerrilla-style attacks, many of them paramilitary police officers.

The eight men, all members of the minority Uighur group in the westernmost Xinjiang region, were members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), listed by the United Nations as a terrorist group with links to al-Qaeda.

Wu Heping, spokesman for the Public Security Ministry, said: “We hope that relevant international governments and law enforcement departments can carry out investigations into these eight terrorist suspects according to the law, and if their whereabouts are discovered, that they be arrested and handed over to China.”

The men, their fuzzy mugshots issued by police in Beijing, were wanted for a series of different plots. However, the Chinese police gave no hint as to where the wanted men were believed to have sought refuge.

Mr Wu said two of the suspects, named as Xiamisidingaihemaiti Abudumijiti and Aikemilai Wumaierjiang, had tried to bomb a “large market place where many Chinese business people gather” before the Games opening ceremony on August 8. It was not known if their attack had been planned for a city outside Xinjiang. The Uighurs, who want independence for their mainly Muslim homeland, have shown little ability to carry out violence outside their own region.

The Ministry said: “The eight are all key members of the ETIM, and all participated in the planning, deployment and execution of all kinds of violent terrorist activities targeting the Beijing Olympics.”

A third man, named as Yakuf Memeti had targeted a big oil refinery but was thwarted by tight security. Many Uighurs are resentful at the influx of Han Chinese immigrants to Xinjiang and accuse Beijing of siphoning oil away from the petroleum-rich region to profit the Chinese government.

The wanted list also named Memetiming Memeti, 37, as the head of the ETIM, accused of sending members to China and “certain Middle Eastern and Western Asian countries” to collect funds, explosives and carry out terror attacks on targets in China and overseas. The police said he had called for “2008 to become China’s year of mourning” in videos posted online.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Tehran cannot live up to its rhetoric
• The new unicycle that will ‘change the world’
• We cannot wish away Iran’s bomb