China bans lighters, matches from flights

China has added matches and lighters to a list of banned items on board domestic flights after what it said was plot to blow up a plane, the latest in a series of security measures before the Beijing Olympics.

China has added matches and lighters to a list of banned items on board domestic flights after what it said was plot to blow up a plane, the latest in a series of security measures before the Beijing Olympics.

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The government has banned passengers carrying liquids on board domestic flights since March 13.

"For the need of air security, passengers will be banned from carrying matches and lighters on domestic flights from April 7," the General Administration of Civil Aviation said on its Web site (http://www.caac.gov.cn).

A passenger jet from the restive western region of Xinjiang made a forced landing after the discovery of an ethnic Uighur planning a "terrorist attack", state media said last month.

Chinese officials said internationally backed separatists seeking an independent Xinjiang, a largely Muslim region, were behind the failed March 7 attack.

Officials have not provided a detailed account of the incident. But sources told Reuters that the chief suspects boarded the flight carrying drink cans that contained flammable liquids.

China's ethnic tensions have come into focus in the wake of rioting in Tibet and Tibetan areas last month.