Plans grounded

Hong Kong (Reuter) - China yesterday rejected fresh plans for funding Hong Kong's new pounds 13bn airport but denied holding the project hostage to the Governor Chris Patten's drive for democratic reform in the colony, a British official said.

The chief British negotiator, Tony Galsworthy, said Peking had objected to almost every aspect of the new funding plans.

The airport, which is supposed to open just before Hong Kong returns to China in 1997, has proved an irritant to Sino-British relations ever since it was announced three years ago.