The Constitutional Affairs Bureau says the immediate priority for Hong Kong is to secure consensus on the models and roadmap for implementing universal suffrage.

Commenting on the remarks made by Anson Chan on constitutional development in her "Hong Kong Letter" broadcast on RTHK today, the bureau said the immediate priority of the community should be to focus on the models for implementing universal suffrage and to seek a community-wide consensus on the roadmap, rather than to seek a fundamental reorganisation of functional constituencies prior to the 2008 Legislative Council election.

It would be extremely difficult to secure consensus to combine functional constituencies of different backgrounds at this point in time.

The Commission on Strategic Development is now discussing possible models for selecting the Chief Executive and for forming LegCo.

It will meet again in April. Depending on progress made, the Government will publish a report around mid-2007 to summarise the commission's discussions for public consultation.