BEIJING, Sept 24: China slammed a senior US State Department official on Friday for advocating greater democratic governance of Hong Kong, saying that the former British colony was now Chinese territory and brooked no interference from outside.

Beijing was responding to comments made on Thursday in Washington by Randall Schriver, who in testimony before a US congressional hearing urged China to establish "genuine representative government" in Hong Kong in line with the wishes of the majority of residents.

"Hong Kong is China's Hong Kong and Hong Kong affairs are the internal affairs of China," a statement issued by the Chinese foreign ministry said. "We oppose any outside forces interfering in Hong Kong affairs and hope that the United States government would do more to support the 'one country, two systems'..., refrain from interfering in China's internal affairs and take real actions beneficial to Hong Kong's prosperity and stability."

Schriver, a deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, also said China should not ignore the fact that an impressive 62 percent of the votes cast in the September 12 legislative council elections in Hong Kong went to the pan-democratic camp.

"I do firmly believe that Beijing's vision of Hong Kong can best be realized by moving more rapidly towards the goal of a genuine representative government - one which would meet the aspirations of the vast majority of the people of Hong Kong," he said.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, under the Chinese rubric of 'one country, two systems,' which lays out a mode of political autonomy in Hong Kong until 2047.

A Hong Kong government spokesman responded on Friday to the US official's comments, saying the territory would undertake electoral changes in line with its Basic Law mini-constitution.

"The Basic Law provides that the elections of the Chief Executive (CE) and all the members of the Legislative Council (LegCo) by universal suffrage is the ultimate aim, and this will be achieved by gradual and orderly progress," the spokesman said in a statement.

"Although ... universal suffrage will not be introduced in 2007 and 2008 for the elections of the CE and of the LegCo, there is scope to make further improvements to our electoral system.

"We hope that foreign governments and legislatures will continue to respect the principle that Hong Kong's electoral arrangements should be made in accordance with the Basic Law." -AFP