SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer on Tuesday rejected Chinese reports her own children blamed her for inciting deadly unrest, as she arrived in Australia for a visit which has drawn strong protests from Beijing.

The exiled US-based head of the World Uighur Congress (WUC) touched down in Sydney for a 10-day trip during which she will attend the premiere of a documentary about her life and meet members of Australia's Uighur community.

She told Radio Free Asia that China's official Xinhua agency had forced her children to blame her for inciting last month's violence in China's restive

Xinjiang region which the government says left at least 197 dead. "China has power," Kadeer said, according to the radio station.

"They are able to control my children's speech and turn their tongues against me, but they can't control the love created by God between me and my children."

"It's not worth wondering who wrote that letter, I know my children. No one wants to blame his or her mother for something, even if they did do something wrong," she added.

The two letters, which were widely quoted in Chinese media, were purportedly from Kadeer's son Khahar and daughter Roxingul, as well as her younger brother Memet.

"Because of you, many innocent people of all ethnic groups lost their lives in Urumqi on July 5, with huge damage to property, shops and vehicles," Xinhua quoted a letter addressed to Kadeer as saying.

A second letter from the relatives, addressed to the families of those killed, said the unrest was "organised by the WUC, led by Rebiya Kadeer, and implemented by a group of separatists within the Chinese borders".

But Kadeer said the letters were an attempt to discredit her among the Uighurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority, and damage her global reputation.

"I know all the old and new methods of the Chinese authorities for criticising their enemies," the mother of 11 said at Sydney airport.

"This is not the first time this has happened to me."

Her visit, as a guest of the Melbourne International Film Festival, sparked diplomatic ructions with Beijing, who demanded she be denied a visa and summoned Australia's ambassador in protest.

All Chinese-language films and funding were also pulled from the festival, Australia's biggest.

But Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australia had no information or evidence to suggest Kadeer was a "terrorist" and would allow her into the country.

Kadeer, who described herself Tuesday as "outspoken and honest" about the situation of the Uighurs, caused a furore in Japan last week with suggestions that 10,000 people "disappeared" during the Xinjiang unrest.

Smith said he had no plans to meet Kadeer, and declined to join her call for a United Nations investigation into the ethnic clashes.

He insisted that relations with key trade partner China, already under strain after the July detention of a mining executive in Shanghai, would not be affected.

Kadeer was once a successful businesswoman in Xinjiang but spent six years in a Chinese jail and has become a figurehead for the Uighur movement since her release in 2005.

The Uighurs in Xinjiang claim they have suffered political and religious persecution since Chinese troops "peacefully liberated" the vast region 60 years ago.