by Lorien Holland

BEIJING, Feb 21 (AFP) - China's frontier people will view the demise of patriarch Deng Xiaoping as a golden chance to push their independence struggle, while Beijing concentrates on sorting out political problems closer to home.

With violent demonstrations already sweeping through Moslem Xinjiang and antipathy towards China regularly surfacing in Tibet, it is clear that Beijing's plans to assimilate its ethnic groups are foundering.

But the chasm between regional unrest and freedom from China's empire will be almost impossible to breech.

Back in the forties when China was divided by civil war and the Japanese invasion, Xinjiang managed to declare itself the republic of East Turkestan.

Within five years, a victorious Mao Zedong reclaimed control and sent in ethnic Chinese settlers and soldiers to pacify the region.

While Deng himself commanded the Chinese troops who took control of Tibet in 1951, Mao ensured that the same troops exacted swift retribution after the popular 1959 uprising when the region's leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India.

Nevertheless, Deng's death late Wednesday at the age of 92 will be seen by those promoting regional independence as an good opportunity in the long-term ebb and flow of Chinese power.

Left behind is a collective government without a powerful figurehead like Mao or Deng who both stopped at nothing to maintain China's territorial integrity.

Tibet's Dalai Lama was quick Thursday to call for negotiations with the new regime in the hope of improving Tibet's stong ethnic conflicts.

"Deng has been involved in the Tibetan issue from the very beginning ... so it seems to me he had the intention to resolve the Tibetan issue himself during his own lifetime," the Dalai Lama said.

The issue was not resolved, however, he said. "Perhaps he regretted this; for me, even now I cannot find a way to resolve it, so I regret that."

Tibet's government in exile echoed the call, with a statement hoping the death of Deng would "bring new openings for finding a peaceful and satisfactory solution to the issue of Tibet."

However, in neighbouring Xinjiang, the Moslem pro-independents were in little position to make a formal statement over Deng's death.

Widespread rioting throughout the far west of the region in early February left hundreds dead, and brought a sharp crackdown on the independence movement, according to eye-witness reports.

While the movement has pledged to fight back and looks likely to be able to do so with its base in neighbouring Kazakhstan and strong support from the Moslem brotherhood troops have moved fast to root out the leaders, and have so far executed more than 30.

But like many of the ethnic Chinese population, Xinjiang's Moslems remain deeply superstitious and the series of strong earthquakes that have shaken the region in the last two months remain a clear indication for them that political change is imminent.