BEIJING - China says President Hu Jintao has cut short an official trip to Europe to deal with violence in western Xinjiang where at least 156 people have died in rioting.

The Foreign Ministry said on its Web site today that Hu had left Italy before he was to take part in a Group of Eight meeting with major developing countries.

The ministry says State Councilor Dai Bingguo will attend G8, in the central Italian city of L'Aquila, instead of Hu. A state visit to Portugal has been canceled.

In China's oil-rich Xinjiang territory, meanwhile, sobbing Muslim women scuffled with riot police, and Chinese men wielding steel pipes, meat cleavers and sticks rampaged through the streets yesterday as ethnic tensions worsened, prompting officials to declare a curfew.

The new violence in Xinjiang's capital erupted only a few hours after the city's top officials told reporters that the streets in Urumqi were returning to normal following a riot that killed 156 people Sunday.

The officials also said more than 1,000 suspects had been rounded up since the spasm of attacks by Muslim Uighurs against Han Chinese, the ethnic majority.

The chaos returned when hundreds of young Han men seeking revenge began gathering on sidewalks with kitchen knives, clubs, shovels and wooden poles. They spent most of the afternoon marching through the streets and smashing windows of Muslim restaurants.

Riot police successfully fought them back with volleys of tear gas and a massive show of force.

At one point, the mob chased a boy who looked like he was a Uighur. The youth, who appeared to be about 12, climbed a tree, and the crowd tried to whack his legs with their sticks as the terrified boy cried. He was eventually allowed to leave unharmed as the rioters ran off to focus on another target.

After the crowds thinned out, a curfew was announced from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. Police cars cruised the streets in the evening, telling people to go home, and they complied. *