WASHINGTON - THE United States urged China Monday to ensure transparent and fair trials after Beijing said it executed nine people over ethnically charged violence in the far-western city of Urumqi.

'The US government continues to urge China to handle all detentions and judicial processes relating to the Urumqi violence in a transparent manner,' State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told AFP.

'We also urge China to ensure that the legal rights of all Chinese citizens are respected in accordance with international standards of due process,' he said. 'Our embassy officials in Beijing have discussed the issues with the Chinese government.'

Beijing said earlier that it carried out its first executions over July's violence in Urumqi, which pitted the Xinjiang region's mostly Muslim Uighur community against China's majority Han.

The ethnic violence, China's worst in decades, left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, according to an official toll.

According to previous statements by the Xinjiang government, the nine people sentenced to death in October included eight Uighurs and one Han. -- AFP