The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that handling of the violence in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is China's internal affair and Moscow hopes the Chinese government's efforts will normalize the situation.

"We would like to emphasize that Russia considers Xinjiang as an inseparable part of China and believes that what is going on there is exclusively an internal affair for China," the ministry said in a statement.

"We hope that the steps the Chinese authorities are taking legitimately to maintain public order in XUAR will help normalize the situation in that region in the near future," the Interfax news agency quoted the statement as saying.

At least 156 people were killed during a riot on Sunday evening in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang in northwest China. More than 1,000 others were injured.

Xinjiang police said they had evidence that the separatist World Uygur Congress had masterminded the riot.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2009)