The announcement is Beijing's clearest indication yet of the city's political future but has upset democrats pushing for 2012 as the deadline to achieve full democracy in the Asian financial hub, a timetable China rejected.

The election of Hong Kong's chief executive "may be implemented by the method of universal suffrage" in 2017, said Qiao Xiaoyang, a senior official from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Elections are possible for all members of Hong Kong's Legislative Council in 2020 at the earliest, while China's top legislature ruled out direct elections for both legislature and chief executive in 2012, he said.

The congress released its decision after considering a report on reform submitted by Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang, who did not propose a timetable but hailed Saturday's ruling.

"The timetable for attaining universal suffrage has been set. Hong Kong is entering a most important chapter in its constitutional history," he told reporters.

But China's parliament said constitutional amendments were necessary ahead of reforms and that it had to approve those changes before elections could take place. Analysts said that meant Beijing could still stall the process.

"What they are saying is that we may be able to see full elections by 2017," said James Sung, a political scientist at Hong Kong's City University.

"But if the Hong Kong people, democrats and other political parties cannot agree on the details of the amendments and if (China) is not happy with them, it still may not allow universal suffrage by that year," he said.

Pro-democracy activists criticised Saturday's decision, saying it fell short of guaranteeing universal suffrage and vowed to stand firm on their 2012 goal. They later led more than 1,000 people in a protest march through the former British colony.

Some of the activists burned a document of the ruling in protest, TV images showed. One democratic activist has been on a hunger strike for nearly 100 hours to fight for early democracy.

"We strongly condemn the decision that violates the opinion of the majority people," they said in a joint statement, adding Hong Kong may not have full democracy as much as 20 years after its 1997 handover from Britain to China.

"I am very angry. I think Hong Kong people are mature enough to have universal suffrage now," lawmaker Emily Lau said.

"What the (parliament) gave was a vague idea of when universal suffrage might happen. It didn't give a definite answer. We are talking about a guarantee and this is not a guarantee," she said.

Lawmaker Audrey Eu, fighting back tears, said political reform was taking too long.

"How much longer do we have to wait? Hong Kong people should not give up easily," she said.

Anson Chan, a popular former chief-secretary elected legislator early this month in a by-election, criticised China for failing to guarantee a timetable and said Hong Kongers would be disappointed there was not a clear timescale.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called China's ruling a disappointment and urged China to allow full elections as soon as possible.

He added: "I remain of the view that both China and Hong Kong's interests will be best served by allowing Hong Kong to move to full democracy as soon as possible."

The Basic Law, established when Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule, guarantees universal suffrage but did not set a timetable for achieving it.

Currently, only half of 60 legislators are directly elected, while the remaining seats are held by representatives of business and professional groups mostly loyal to Beijing.

Hong Kong's political leader is chosen by an 800-strong committee, most of whose members support Beijing.

Qiao, who flew to Hong Kong Saturday to explain the decision, stressed that China retains the right to have the final say on political reform in the southern city.

He said the ruling was done for the stability of the territory and that economic development should be a priority for the city.

Tsang urged Hong Kong's citizens and political parties to forge a consensus on the controversial issue of democratic change.

"If emotional debate and conflict between political parties drags on over this matter, Hong Kong's stability and development will be severely hampered," he said.

But protester Wong Yu-hin, a 70-year-old retired electrician, said he had little chance of seeing universal suffrage.

"At least I hope the next generation will be able to enjoy it," he said.

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