China accuses Europe over Uighurs

China has strongly criticised the European Parliament in Brussels for allowing a meeting on its premises of Muslim Uighur activists demanding independence for the Chinese province of Xinjiang.

China's Foreign Ministry accused the parliament of hosting, what it called, a terrorist organisation and providing a place for anti-China activities.

It warned that such actions would damage Sino-European relations.

Beijing's comments came after about 30 Uighur activists from the East Turkestan National Congress held a seminar in the building on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Uighurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims who briefly ran their own independent Republic of East Turkestan in Xinjiang before the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service