University admission work in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has progressed smoothly since it kicked off one week ago despite the effects of the Urumqi riot, said a local official on Tuesday.

About 164,000 examinees in Xinjiang took part in this year's national university entrance exam in June, and 99,000 of them will be admitted by universities, said Han Chunxi, director of the regional admission office.

"My colleagues tried their best to send out university admission notices in time, although the July 5 riot posed huge difficulties to our work," said Han.

He explained that the first batch of university admission letters were sent out before Monday, and the second batch of letters will be mailed out before July 23.

The post office department in Xinjiang issued a notice that all post offices must ensure all university admission letters will be delivered to the target.

"We have strict procedure on delivering the admission letters,"said Guan Yonggui, a post office staff member in Tianshan road, in Urumqi.

He told Xinhua that before sending out every admission letter, the post man should make a telephone confirmation of the recipient, to ensure no letter is missed.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2009)