URUMQI, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese leader Zhou Yongkang said Friday on his tour to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that all available efforts should be mobilized to "win the tough war of maintaining Xinjiang's stability."

    Zhou, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, stressed that "tough measures" must be used to ensure stability in the region, where a riot erupted on Sunday causing at least 156 deaths. More than 1,000 others were injured.

    Zhou arrived in Urumqi, capital city of Xinjiang, on Thursday. He is the first member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee to visit the region after the riot.

    All CPC members should fan out to communities and villages in the autonomous region to publicize the Party's policies, in order to ensure the region's social stability, Zhou said.

    Every household and every community in Xinjiang should contribute to the ethnic unity in the region, he said.

    The Party's top official in charge of law enforcement demanded efforts be made to prevent violence from spreading or repeating itself, stressing that stability was the most pressing job at hand.

    Authorities must fully carry out measures made by the Party, and to "nip all hidden dangers in the bud," he said.

    When talking with teachers and students from the Xinjiang Normal University, Zhou said Sunday's riot was masterminded by hostile forces from both home and abroad, with the aim to undermine the country's ethnic unity and development.

    He urged the students to study hard and make contributions to the development of Xinjiang.