A court in western China's Xinjiang region sentenced six people to death on Monday in the first trials over July 5 riots that left nearly 200 people dead, state-run television reported.

China Central Television said one other defendant was sentenced to life in prison over the unrest, the worst ethnic violence to hit China in decades.

During the rioting, members of the ethnic Uighur minority ? most of whom are Muslims ? went on a rampage in attacks directed mainly at members of China's dominant Han ethnic group.

The riots left 197 people dead, most of them Han, according to the government.