Heavy security in China's Xinjiang

By Chris Buckley

URUMQI, China (Reuters) - An uneasy calm returned on Sunday to China's riot-hit Urumqi where 184 people died in ethnic violence a week ago, though the official tally of dead could rise, a regional official indicated.

Shops were open and heavy traffic returned to the streets of Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, where Uighurs, a largely Muslim people, rioted and attacked Han Chinese, who form the majority of China's 1.3 billion population.

Security forces massed in Uighur neighbourhoods on Sunday as officials set stability as their top priority.

According to the official count, 137 of those killed were Han Chinese and 46 were Uighurs who share cultural bonds with Central Asian peoples.

The death toll could rise further. Xinjiang's governor on Sunday raised the number of injured to 1,680, of which 74 were critically injured, from the previous figure of about 1,000.

"It feels like it's getting back to normal now but I feel there's going to be more problems," a Han Chinese vendor named Xia Lihai told Reuters. He said there was a risk of more Uighur protests once arrests, trials and sentencing are announced.

A fire at an oil refinery operated by PetroChina on the outskirts of the city was quickly extinguished on Sunday morning, but police and refinery officials ruled out a deliberate attack.

On Saturday, Zhou Yongkang, the nation's top leader in charge of security affairs, toured the southern Xinjiang cities of Kashgar and Hotan, calling for a "steel wall" of security to "win the tough war of maintaining Xinjiang's stability."