Organisers of a Uighur youth conference in Budapest said Sunday the meeting had been cancelled because of a bomb threat and that one of its top officials had been expelled from Hungary.

"Following a false bomb threat... the Uighur conference was cancelled," the World Federation of Hungarians (MVSZ) said in a statement on its website.

It also said the vice-president of the World Uighur Congress, German national Umit Hamit, had been expelled from Hungary, but gave no reason.

The planned May 30-June 1 conference was to have brought together youths from China's Muslim Uighur minority, which claims it faces relentless persecution by the Chinese authorities.

"The MVSZ is deeply disappointed that the meeting of Uighurs, who are the closest relatives of ethnic Hungarians, was made impossible," MVSZ official Jozsef Orban told AFP.

Police said Hamit had been expelled as he was banned from travelling to Hungary, but did not give an explanation for the ban.