01 October 2004	Friday	15 Shaban 1425

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NEW DELHI, Sept 30: The Indian government has stepped up security at the Chinese embassy in Delhi over fears that Chinese extremists linked to Al Qaeda could be looking for soft targets here , Indian officials and diplomats said on Thursday, adding that similar steps were taken by Pakistan to protect Chinese officials.

The officials were commenting on a report in The Times of India that the Chinese government had asked India to beef up security not just around the Chinese embassy in the city, but also around all its establishments in the country.

The paper said that such a request from China was unprecedented. "There is a periodic review of threat perceptions for various diplomatic missions. And we agreed that we need to act to protect the Chinese embassy better," an Indian home ministry official said.

According to the Times report, in its letter to New Delhi, Beijing said it feared attacks by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) activists. The small militant separatist group is based in China's western Xinjiang province, a vast, thinly populated region that shares borders with several countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

After 9/11, China warned the Bush administration that the ETIM had ties to Al Qaeda. In August 2002, after months of pressure from Beijing, the Bush administration announced it would freeze the group's assets in the United States.

Meanwhile, a meeting of Indian sleuths has asked the Delhi police to review security arrangements around the Chinese embassy in the Chanakyapuri diplomatic district, barely 200 yards from the Pakistan High Commission and closely flanked on two sides by the British and US missions.