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BEIJING, Sept 11 (AFP) - China's official press on Wednesday used the anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States to insist that it too faces a terrorism threat, centred around its Muslim-majority Xinjiang region.

The danger is so severe that Beijing has set up a dedicated anti-terrorism bureau under the Ministry of Public Security, the state-run China Daily newspaper quoted a top official as saying.

The revelation by Li Baodong, head of the Foreign Ministry's international department, was "the first time that a Chinese official confirmed the existence of such an organisation," the newspaper said.

"China is a victim of terrorism," Li said, due to the activities of separatists pushing for an independent state of East Turkestan in Xinjiang, China's westernmost region, which shares a small border with Afghanistan.

"Collaborating with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the East Turkestan forces have created lots of terrorist violence in Xinjiang... and in Central Asian regions, seriously threatening the safety and security of the whole area."

China has consistently sought to link its efforts in Xinjiang to US-led anti-terrorism measures over the past year, amid cautions from rights groups that Beijing is using this as an excuse for increased repression.

Outgoing UN rights chief Mary Robinson, among others, has expressed concern that even peaceful dissent among Xinjiang's Turkic-speaking Uighur population is being branded terrorism.

Washington has also warned China over the issue, but last month offered a significant concession by agreeing to freeze US-based assets of an obscure Xinjiang group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

President Jiang Zemin has also been pressing Beijing's case, the China Daily reported in a separate story Wednesday, telling visiting Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew that China opposed "terrorism in all its forms", including in Xinjiang.

Beijing has been visibly buoyed by Washington's concession over the ETIM, and has pressed its case about Xinjiang with seemingly renewed vigour ever since.

The announcement of the asset freeze came hours after China announced it was toughening regulations on the exports of missile technology and was seen by many observers as a clear trade-off.

In another September 11-related complaint, the China Daily also highlighted the plight of Chinese students allegedly refused visas to go to US universities following the terror attacks.

But elsewhere in China's official press Wednesday, there was also a great deal of sympathetic coverage about the effects of last September 11 on the United States, as well as round-ups of its impact on the rest of the world.

"Chinese people remain strong in their sadness and condolences for the American people," the People's Daily said in a commentary.

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