Police in Beijing are expecting a terrorist attack against luxury hotels in China in the coming week, according to a warning issued by the American Embassy in the Chinese capital.

In a message posted on the embassy's website this morning, the US State Department advises American tourists to be vigilant if they are planning to visit the country in the near future.

"The Embassy has learned that Chinese police advised hotels that Islamic extremist elements could be planning to attack four and five star hotels in China sometime over the course of the next week," the statement reads.

"Chinese authorities have assured the Embassy that they are taking appropriate security measures and investigating the possible threat thoroughly."

The warning comes just before a series of high-profile visits by American leaders to China. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, will arrive in Beijing on Monday for a four-day trip, followed by George Bush Snr, before President Bush flies to China for a two-day visit on November 19.

The tip-off was apparently only given to the American Embassy. A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that the British Embassy had received no such advice and that it was checking the warning with its sources in Beijing.

"We are looking into it now and if we feel that the intelligence is credible then we will change our travel advice," said a spokeswoman. "We will speak to the Chinese authorities and see what we can find out."

A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry would not confirm the report at a press conference in Beijing.

The message gives no indication whether the Chinese authorities are expecting the attack from foreign or homegrown militants. In recent years, official references to "Islamic extremism" and "terrorism" have normally referred to Muslim Uighur separatists in the western province of Xinjiang.

Xinjiang was briefly independent from the rest of China after the Second World War - as the Second Republic of Eastern Turkestan - before being subsumed into the rest of China by the People's Liberation Army. Last month, the Chinese Government celebrated 50 years of communist rule in the region.

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