The Chinese authorities denied the claim, however, saying the bombings had nothing to do with terrorist attacks.

IntelCenter, a United States-

based terrorism monitoring firm, said TIP released a video entitled Our Blessed Jihad In Yunnan on Wednesday, two days after the bus bombings in China's Yunnan province.

The video released by TIP featured a statement by the group's leader, Commander Seyfullah, threatening the Aug 8 to 24 Beijing Games.

'Despite the Turkistan Islamic Party's repeated warnings to China and the international community about stopping the 29th Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese have haughtily ignored our warnings,' IntelCenter on Friday quoted the terrorist leader as saying.

'The Turkistan Islamic Party volunteers who had gone through special preparations have started urgent actions.'

He said the group bombed two public buses in Shanghai on May 5 and 'took action against police' in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, on July 17 with a tractor loaded with explosives.

The group also bombed a plastics factory in Guangzhou on July 17 and bombed three public buses in Yunnan last Monday, according to IntelCenter.

The bus explosions in Yunnan for which TIP claimed responsibility killed at least two people and injured 14 in the city of Kunming, amid a security clampdown ahead of the Olympics.

The TIP said in its video that it was warning China 'one more time', according to the IntelCenter transcript.

'Our aim is to target the most critical points related to the Olympics. We will try to attack Chinese central cities severely, using the tactics that have never been employed,' said Commander Seyfullah.

He urged spectators and athletes, 'particularly the Muslims' planning to attend the Olympics, to change their minds.

'The Turkistan Islamic Party volunteers will conduct violent military actions against individuals, departments, venues and activities that are related to the Olympics in China,' he said.

Intelligence agency Stratfor said TIP is another name used by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an ethnic Uighur and Muslim group whose goal is to establish an independent state in west China's Xinjiang region.

The US and China have designated ETIM, which has links to Al-Qaeda, a terrorist group.

China had previously announced a series of successful raids this year against Islamic terrorist groups, including ETIM, in the predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region.

The Ministry of Public Security declined to comment yesterday when contacted by Xinhua, but police authorities in Shanghai, Yunnan, Zhejiang and Guangdong refuted TIP's claim that it was responsible for the various attacks.

A spokesman of Yunnan's public security department said yesterday there was no evidence to indicate the explosions were connected with terrorists, or with the Beijing Olympics.

Reuters, AFP, Xinhua