Chinese police have killed 18 people described as terrorists in a raid in a remote area of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

One policeman was killed and another wounded in the clash which took place on Friday in the mountainous Pamir Plateau in south Xinjiang, Ba Yan, a police spokeswoman, told the state news agency Xinhua.

She said police captured 17 suspects and were pursuing several more after destroying what she said was a terrorist camp.

Police also seized 22 hand grenades and materials to make 1,500 more, she said. Guns and other home-made explosives were also found.

Ba said the training camp near the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan, was run by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

Chinese authorities say it is one of the region's most violent groups, labelling it a terrorist organisation and alleging that it has links to al-Qaeda.

The US has also put ETIM on a list of terrorist groups.

China has long claimed that militants among the region's dominant ethnic Uighurs are leading a violent Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang.

The Uighurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims with a language and culture distinct from the majority of Chinese.

Critics accuse Beijing of using claims of terrorism as an excuse to crack down on peaceful pro-independence sentiment and expressions of Uighur identity.

Chinese troops occupied Xinjiang at the end of the communist revolution in 1949, and in subsequent years the area has seen a steady influx of migrants from China's overcrowded east.