The cells were uncovered in the city of Kashgar, China's westernmost city lying to the west of the Indian city of Leh, The China Daily reported, admitting that terrorist networks have sprouted and are active in its sensitive region.

Kashgar is the capital city of the region called Chinese Turkestan and the cultural centre of the Uighurs, the Muslim Ethnic group, which has raised a banner of revolt against the Chinese rule.

Xinjiang is home to over eight million Uighurs.

"Seven terrorist cells have been uncovered and destroyed in just four months of this year, in one of the country's most remote border regions." Zhang Jian, Party Secretary of Kashi, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, said.

The whole region faced an "ongoing threat" from terrorists who remote control local operatives from abroad using internet, the Paper quoted Zhang as saying.

On August 4 last year, the Uighurs men armed with guns, knives, axes and explosives attacked the police, killing 17 and injuring 15.

According to Zhang, the border city of Kashi has long been a launching ground for terrorists, with 350 attacks resulting in 60 deaths of government officials and civilians since the 1990s.

The region of vast high altitude deserts and towering snow mountains that borders central Asia has been a scene of armed insurgency for more than two decades, with Beijing attributing this to "sneaking of terrorists from the neighbouring countries".

In 2008, 23 military police and police officers were killed in the battle against terrorism, Zhang said.

Meanwhile, 591 terrorist organisations and separatist groups had been destroyed across the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region between 1990 and 2003, according to incomplete statistics from the Xinjiang Politics and Law Committee.

Large quantity of weapons and ammunition were seized and destroyed.

"We know that the extremists will keep attempting to separate Xinjiang from China, and we know they will never get what they want," Zhang said.