BEIJING (AFP) - ONE man was sentenced to death and a second handed a life prison term over a factory brawl in southern China that sparked deadly unrest in the north-west Xinjiang region, state media said on Saturday.

Nine others were given prison sentences of five to eight years for their role in the fight in Guangdong province at the end of June, which left two Muslim Uighur men dead, Xinhua news agency reported, citing court officials.

The brawl erupted between members of the mainly Muslim Uighur minority and Han Chinese workers at a Hong Kong-owned toy factory over Internet rumours about an alleged rape.

A subsequent protest by the Uighur community in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi against the factory brawl descended into violence on July 5, with at least 197 people killed, according to the government.

The report did not identify the defendants convicted in the court in Shaoguan city.

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