Beijing, Aug 19 (IANS): The widow of Chinese activist and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo has appeared for the first time since her husbands funeral in an online video in which she asked for more time to mourn.

Liu Xia's whereabouts have been unknown since her husband died of liver cancer on July 13 while in custody. She has been under house arrest since her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, BBC reported.

She was allowed to visit him in prison about once a month and to remain with him while he was treated in his final days.

In a short video posted on YouTube on Friday, Liu Xia is seen holding a cigarette and sitting in a living-room style area. She tells the camera that she is recovering from her husband's death and will "readjust" in time.

"I'm taking a rest in another place," she said in a weak, hoarse voice. "Please give time for my heart to recover. One day I will see you in a healthy form".

It is not clear who made the recording or where it was set, leading to speculation that it may have been made under duress, BBC reported. The account to which the video was uploaded was registered in July. 

Chinese officials say that Liu Xia is a free Chinese citizen and is simply grieving in private. But after her husband's funeral, a lawyer who had worked for Liu Xiaobo said that the activist's wife was being held "incommunicado" and needed to be rescued.

Her late husband was one of China's foremost pro-democracy campaigners and a fierce critic of the state, seen by authorities as a dissident. In 2010, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism in favour of democracy in China. 

Liu Xiaobo also played a significant role in the Tiananmen protests of June 1989 which ended in bloodshed when they were quashed by troops. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power".