BEIJING, March 18 (Reuters) - Chinese authorities believe a March 7 incident when a flight to Beijing from the restive Xinjiang region cut short its journey was a failed attack by separatists based abroad, state media reported.

China Southern flight CZ6901 originated in Urumqi, capital of the far western region where militant Uighurs have agitated for an independent "East Turkestan" for their largely Muslim people.

"We have concluded from investigations that the attempt to cause an air disaster on the Southern Airlines flight on March 7 was a grave act of sabotage instigated and carried out by Eastern Turkestan separatists from abroad," said the Communist Party chief of Xinjiang, Wang Lequan, according to an official Xinjiang news Web site (www.tianshannet.com).

Exiled Uighurs campaigning for an independent country have said China concocted the case to justify intense controls on Uighurs within China.

The plane landed in the city of Lanzhou after crew members found what Xinhua news agency at the time called a "planned terrorist attack". Local newspaper reports said the incident apparently involved containers of flammable liquid brought on board.

Wang said that a suspect or suspects had already confessed to planning, directing and initiating the failed attack. He did not specify what country they operated from.

Xinjiang is home to 8 million Muslim Uighurs, many of whom resent the growing presence and economic grip of Han Chinese. The oil-rich region borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A senior Chinese official said recently extremist Uighurs -- a Turkic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with central Asia -- were plotting attacks on the Beijing Olympics.

China has said its police shot dead two members of a "terrorist gang" and rounded up 15 others in a raid in January in Xinjiang. Wang said separatist militants "have never halted their separatist sabotage activities". (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by John Chalmers and Robert Woodward)

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