Beijing, July 8 (DPA) China's riot-hit city of Urumqi appeared calmer early Wednesday, witnesses and state media said, a day after authorities imposed an overnight curfew following more ethnic-related protests and the gathering of armed gangs.

'It's pretty normal,' one foreign reporter said by telephone as he walked along a main road in the far western city midmorning.

Many ordinary people were walking on the streets and apparently going about their normal business in the city centre, the reporter said.

But there were still many columns of riot police patrolling the city, the capital of the Xinjiang region, and an 'aggressive atmosphere' remained among its 2.3 million ethnic Uighur and Han Chinese residents, he said.

State broadcaster China Central Television reported that many businesses and major markets in Urumqi were open Wednesday.

In a front-page editorial Wednesday, the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, urged local residents to work for 'ethnic unity' and 'protect the people's interests'.

The Communist Party and state-backed Muslim leaders in Xinjiang region appealed for calm in televised speeches late Tuesday.

Chinese President Hu Jintao also pulled out of the G8 summit that starts Wednesday in Italy and left for China because of the escalating ethnic conflict in Xinjiang, the Chinese foreign ministry said.