REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, HONG KONG -  Hong Kong's embattled leader Leung Chun-ying vowed on Sunday to stay in office, warning students demanding his resignation that their pro-democracy movement was out of control. InterLeung said the blockade of key parts of the Asian financial hub - now entering its third week - could not continue indefinitely.

Speaking in an interview with the local TVB television station, Leung said his government would continue to try to talk with student leaders but did not rule out the use of "minimum force" to clear the area. The last few weeks had "proved that a mass movement is something easy to start, but difficult to stop," he said.

"And no-one can direct the direction and pace of this movement. It is now a movement that has lost control."

Leung also warned that there was "zero chance" that China's leaders in Beijing would change an August decision limiting democracy in Hong Kong. The former British colony was promised that its freedoms would be protected under a "one country/two systems" formula, when Britain handed its old colony back to China 17 years ago.

Beijing has said that only candidates screened by a nomination committee will be able to contest a full city-wide vote to choose the next chief executive in 2017. Some 200 tents now line Gloucester and Harcourt roads on what had been one of Hong Kong's busiest thoroughfares leading to the glittering Central financial district.

Hundreds of protesters, young and old, slept overnight in what some protesters described as the most peaceful, relaxed night yet. Some strummed guitars between speeches, others played cards or read. Some students studied in a makeshift classroom, complete with desks and power sockets set up on the highway.

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