Hong Kong officials, students to start talk

Crowds of protesters who filled Hong Kong's streets with demands for more democracy thinned dramatically after it was decided to hold talks with govt

Student leaders and government officials in Hong Kong will hold talks Friday to resolve the issues that have sparked over a week-long pro-democracy protests.

"The first session will take place Friday," said Lau Kong-wah, under secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs.

A maximum of five people in each delegation will be allowed to participate. The meeting will be open for the media but closed for public, Lau said Tuesday.

The official delegation will be led by Chief Secretary Carrie Lam.

Although student leaders are not satisfied with the way the government has structured the dialogue, they believe they have no choice but to participate, said Lester Shum, deputy secretary of the Hong Kong Federation of Students.

But Lester warned that if the authorities tried to dodge students' demands and did not act in good faith, student leaders will leave the dialogue.

Lau said the framework for holding elections in 2017 must be respected if Hong Kong wants to reform its electoral system.

The number of protesters has been dwindling in the last couple of days, with only hundreds turning out Tuesday.

The protesters' demands included the departure of the chief executive of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, Cy Leung Chung-ying, widely seen as Beijing's puppet.

They also seek guarantees that Hong Kong citizens will be allowed to choose candidates from an unrestricted list for 2017 polls, as Beijing promised when Britain handed over the control of the territory in 1997.

The protests were sparked by Beijing's decision to limit the number of candidates in the 2017 polls to a maximum of three, with those aspirants subject to prior approval of an advisory committee.

The restrictions led students to begin a strike and thousands joined the protests when police used tear gas to disperse them Sep 29.