China on Saturday urged Albania to repatriate five "East Turkistan" terrorist suspects rather than give them political asylum.

"The five Chinese suspected terrorists should be handed over to China and they should not be given asylum," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.

The five suspects from the Uygur ethnic group were dumped into Albania for settlement by the United States in May. They were captured by U.S. troops in 2001 in Pakistan and imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba ever since.

They belonged to the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement", which is recognized by the United Nations as a terrorist group, Liu said.

Reports said Albania had granted the five asylum earlier this week.

China, however, has not been formally informed by the Albanian government that the asylum had been granted, the spokesman said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2006)