Hong Kong student protesters consider pulling up stakes

Credit: Reuters/Bobby Yip

Students Prince Wong (L) and Isabella Lo, who are on a hunger strike, sit in a tent outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong December 3, 2014.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students will decide in the next week whether to call on protesters to pull up stakes despite having failed to achieve their goal of ensuring open nominations in the election for city leader in 2017.

'Some people wish to stay until the last minute and we respect that - but we cannot occupy without meaning,' federation spokeswoman Yvonne Leung told local radio. 'We will decide within the next week whether to stay or retreat.'

The federation is one of several groups driving the protests in the former British colony. Some members of another student group, Scholarism, have gone on hunger strike and leaders of the pro-democracy 'Occupy Central' movement surrendered to police on Wednesday and called on students to retreat.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese Communist Party rule in 1997 under a 'one country, two systems' formula that gives it some autonomy from the mainland and a promise of eventual universal suffrage. Beijing has allowed a free vote in 2017, but insists on screening any candidates for city leader first.

The protests at their peak drew more than 100,000 into the streets but the numbers have now dwindled to just a few hundred.

(Reporting by Diana Chan; Writing by Clare Baldwin)