BEIJING, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Armed police in Beijing conducted an anti-terror drill at a local hotel on Saturday to boost its response capabilities against Mumbai-style militant attacks, state media reported.

Gunmen killed 179 people in the Indian financial capital in a series of raids on targets including luxury hotels.

Members of the Beijing Special Armed Police Unit (BSAPU), a crack security unit, practised jumping out of a helicopter using ropes above the ground, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

"They then shot targets of swaying eggs 15 metres away within 1.5 seconds to practise killing terrorists," the agency said, adding that police also broke through windows to rescue "hostages."

"The drill was aimed at preventing terrorist attacks, especially after the Mumbai attack which had definite targets and careful planning," Xinhua quoted Xiao Yong, the head of the unit, as saying.

China had noticed the way in which the gunmen had attacked different sites in different ways including through shooting, kidnapping and a gunfight with the police, Xiao said.

China and India held an anti-terrorism exercise earlier this week in a show of cooperation between the rival Asian nations.

China is a long-time friend of Pakistan, which India has said was a base of the militants who attacked Mumbai. Beijing has nonetheless been keen to be seen to be working with New Delhi in the aftermath of the attacks.

China says it has its own problems with armed militants seeking independence for its restive western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet.

In October it released a list of eight Islamic "terrorists", who it said wanted to make heavily Muslim Xinjiang into an independent state called East Turkestan, and had tried to bomb targets to disrupt August's Beijing Olympic Games. (Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

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