On Sunday, a coalition of civil and political groups in Hong Kong launched a signature campaign in support of the special administrative region's government's constitutional reform package, which is due to be voted on by its Legislative Council on December 21.

Members of the Grand Coalition Concerning Political Reform, consisting of 11 groups, collected signatures at 700 sites

At one of them, Cheng Yiu-tong, president of the Federation of Trade Unions, signed his name on a large cloth banner that read: "Support Constitutional Reform Plan, Marching Toward Universal Suffrage."

Cheng said the campaign aimed to express a desire to deal with the adoption of the constitutional reform package and a timetable for universal suffrage separately.

Thousands had reportedly also joined an online signature campaign at the websites of three Chinese-language newspapers, Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao and Sing Tao Daily, on Saturday.

The coalition said it expected to collect more than 200,000 signatures over two weeks.

The constitutional reform package, on selection methods for the Chief Executive in 2007 and Legislative Council in 2008, was published by the Hong Kong government in October.

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2005)