(Reuters) - Hong Kong pro-democracy activists recaptured parts of a core protest zone from police early on Saturday after hours of turmoil that the city's police chief warned undermined order and jeopardised public safety.

Dozens of people were injured in the skirmishes, including 18 police, which raged through the night as several thousand protesters squared off again police in the densely populated Mong Kok district.

At least 33 people were arrested, Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK reported.

Police used batons and pepper spray, and scuffled violently with activists, but they were eventually forced to pull back less than 24 hours after they re-opened most of the area to traffic.

The protests have been going on for three weeks and pose one of the biggest political challenges for China since the crushing of pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing in 1989.

Hong Kong Police Commissioner Andy Tsang broke three weeks of public silence to say his force had been "extremely tolerant" but had failed to stop protesters becoming more "radical or violent".

"To these protesters, you may think that your illegal acts have prevented the police in going about our duties, disrupted our deployments and even forced us to retreat," Tsang told a news conference.

"Superficially, that may be the case. But let me tell you this: these illegal acts are undermining the rule of law, undermining (what) Hong Kong has been relying on to succeed."

After police retreated, demonstrators swiftly stacked up barricades made out of packing crates and fences. Tsang said the reoccupation of the area "seriously undermined public order and seriously jeopardized public safety".

The protesters, led by a restive generation of students, have been demanding China's Communist Party rulers live up to constitutional promises to grant full democracy to the former British colony which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Hong Kong is ruled under a "one country, two systems" formula that allows the thriving capitalist hub wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms and specifies universal suffrage for Hong Kong as an eventual goal.

But Beijing ruled on Aug. 31 it would screen candidates who want to run for the city's chief executive in 2017, which democracy activists said rendered the universal suffrage concept meaningless. The protesters are demanding free elections for their leader.

'WE WILL STAY'

The clashes came just hours after Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying offered talks to student leaders next week in an attempt to defuse the protests that have grabbed global headlines with scenes of clashes and tear gas rising between some of the world's most valuable office buildings.

Leung's chief secretary, Carrie Lam, announced on Saturday that between student leaders and the city government would take place for two hours on Tuesday.

The Mong Kok area was calm later on Saturday with the number of protesters much smaller as activists rested. Police stood in formation away from the barricades.

Posters declaring "Reclaim Mong Kok!" had been plastered on shop fronts. The protesters who remained were bracing for another bruising night.

Student Angel So, 20, said she was determined to stop police clearing the area again. "We'll keep coming back," she said, as a friend, Terry Leung, nursed grazes on his arms and legs from scuffles with police.

Joshua Wong, a bookish 18-year-old whose fiery speeches have helped drive the protests, was defiant.

"We will stay and fight till the end," he told Reuters as he surveyed the crowd during the night, from on top of a subway station exit.

The escalation in the confrontation illustrates the dilemma faced by police in trying to strike a balance between law enforcement and not inciting the protesters who have been out since late last month in three core shopping and government districts.

Besides Mong Kok, about 1,000 protesters remained camped out on Hong Kong Island in a sea of tents on an eight-lane highway beneath skyscrapers close to government headquarters.

Despite Leung's offer of talks next week, few expect any resolution without more concrete concessions from authorities.

(AP) — Algerian police tried to push their way into the president's headquarters Wednesday in an unusual protest movement prompted by violence against security forces in the south.

The unrest in southern Algeria and protests in the capital come amid concerns that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is too ill to rule Africa's largest country, an ally in U.S. efforts against terrorism. Bouteflika has been largely absent from the public eye since his re-election in April, and it's unclear whether he was in his office Wednesday.

In the second day of protests in Algiers, about 300 police officers marched to the president's office, wearing their blue uniforms but apparently unarmed. Some tried to push their way past the front gate but were stopped by guards.

The president's chief of staff, Ahmed Ouyahia, emerged to try to talk to protesters, but quickly went back inside after he was met with boos and hisses. The police demanded to see the prime minister instead.

They are demanding the resignation of the head of all security forces in the country, Gen. Abdelghani Hamel, chanting "Hamel, Get Out!"

The protesters are showing support for colleagues in the riot-torn southern oasis city Ghardaia, where security forces have been attacked, according to local media. About a dozen people have been killed and many shops burned in riots since December, as Berber and Arab communities compete for scarce jobs and housing there. Thousands of police have been sent there to quell the violence.

The country's police have not been known to demonstrate before and the unprecedented march comes at a delicate time for oil and gas-rich Algeria.

(Reuters) - Hundreds of student activists camped overnight at major protest sites in Hong Kong as the democracy movement sought to regather momentum after the government called off talks with its leaders aimed at defusing unrest in the global financial hub.

Protests escalated late last month, after Beijing's decision on August 31 to impose conditions for nominations that would effectively stop pro-democracy candidates from contesting an election of the city's chief executive set for 2017.

The occupation movement suffered a noticeable dip in support over the past week, but strong crowds of over ten thousand returned on Friday evening for a series of rallies in the former British colony.

By Saturday afternoon many protesters were coming back again to join the stalwarts who had camped overnight.

"Hong Kong is my home, we are fighting for Hong Kong's future, our future," Lawrence Chan, a 23 year-old media studies student, who has participated in the protests from the outset, told Reuters.

Hong Kong Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said on Thursday that the government had called off talks with the students because of their persistent calls to escalate action.

"It seems like they (the government) don't want to (have a) conversation with us. But I think this amount of people shows that we really want to solve the problem with the government," said Kiki Choi, a 25-year-old art teacher among the protesters.

Since taking to the streets around two weeks ago, the activists have blockaded major roads around the government precinct in Admiralty, as well as the shopping districts of Central and Causeway Bay.

At Friday's rallies, protest leaders urged demonstrators to prepare for a protracted struggle instead of expanding the protests geographically. The protests have led to some resentment among the public due to the resulting traffic jams and loss of business.

It was unclear how long Hong Kong authorities will tolerate the occupation or how the standoff might be resolved. For now, however, the police presence remains thin with authorities seemingly reluctant to risk fresh flare-ups.

Riot police had cracked down on protesters massing near the government headquarters on Sept. 28, but the authorities have taken a softer line since.

Over one hundred colorful tents were sprinkled across the eight-lane Harcourt Road highway, among scores of red and blue portable marquees serving as supply and first aid stations; stocked with water, biscuits, noodles and cereals.

"We have tents here to show our determination that we're prepared for a long term occupation," said Benny Tai, one of the leaders of the movement, emerging bleary-eyed on Saturday morning from a tent pitched outside the Hong Kong government's headquarters.

Scores of people ran a marathon in support of the students early on Saturday, and bridges remained festooned with umbrellas, protest art demanding full democracy and satirical images lampooning Leung Chun-ying, the city's Beijing-backed leader.

The 'Occupy Central' protests, an idea conceived over a year ago referring to the Central business district, have presented Beijing with one of its biggest political challenges since it crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in and around Tiananmen Square in the Chinese capital in 1989.

NO SIMPLE WAY OUT

In the first direct public comments by a senior Chinese leader in response to the protests, Premier Li Keqiang said Hong Kong authorities had the ability to protect the city's economic prosperity and social stability.

"Maintaining the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong is not only in China's interests but is mostly in the interests of the people of Hong Kong," Li said in Germany on Friday.

Since Britain handed back control in 1997, China has ruled Hong Kong through a "one country, two systems" formula which allows wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland and specifies universal suffrage as an eventual goal.

The Communist Party leadership has dismissed the Hong Kong protests as illegal and has left Leung to find a solution.

Beijing fears that calls for democracy in Hong Kong could spread to the mainland, with China already facing separatist unrest in far-flung Tibet and Xinjiang.

Leung has so far ignored protesters demands for full democracy and their calls for him to quit. Earlier this week, some lawmakers demanded that anti-graft officers investigate a $6.4 million business payout to Leung, while in office.

The leader of Hong Kong's largest pro-Beijing political party, Tam Yiu-chung, conceded after a late meeting with Leung that while the protests should be cleared as soon as possible: "It is not a simple thing and it is not a ripe time now."

(AP) — Taiwan, an island that China's ruling Communist Party has long sought to bring into its fold under the same "one country, two systems" arrangement it has for Hong Kong, has thrown its support behind Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.

Taiwanese leaders also have urged Beijing to live up to its pledges of autonomy in the former British colony or risk further alienating the Taiwanese public.

"If Hong Kong can soon achieve universal suffrage, it would be a win-win for Hong Kong and the mainland, and it can greatly help narrow the mental gap between residents on both sides of (the Taiwan Strait) and allow for the relations to develop positively," Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said in a statement.

"Otherwise, it may deepen the antipathy of Taiwan's public and hurt the future of relations between the two sides," Ma said in the statement, dated Tuesday.

In August, Beijing rejected a proposal for open nominations of candidates for Hong Kong's first-ever leadership election, promised for 2017. Instead, all candidates must continue to be picked by a panel that is mostly aligned with Beijing.

In response, tens of thousands of people have rallied in Hong Kong's streets since late last week to press demands for genuine democratic reforms that are in line with "one country, two systems," the arrangement negotiated for the 1997 return of the city from British to Chinese rule.

That constitutional arrangement initially was formulated by China's late Communist leader Deng Xiaoping in an attempt to peacefully reunify with Taiwan, where the nationalist government of the Republic of China settled in 1949 as its last stronghold after losing a civil war to the Communists on the mainland.

The nationalist government's ambitions to reclaim the mainland later fizzled out, and the island became a self-governing democracy, although there has never been a formal declaration of independence.

Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the "one country, two systems" arrangement for Taiwan again, only to see it openly rejected by both Ma and Taiwan's opposition party.

Speaking about the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, Huang Di-ying, spokesman for Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party, said the city's residents had received "a birdcage election law that made a mockery of what the people of Hong Kong had come to expect."

On Tuesday, Taiwan's governmental Mainland Affairs Council issued a statement declaring its support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and invoking its significance for all Chinese people.

"People of Hong Kong have long had high hopes for the implementation of universal suffrage, using it to test if the mainland has truly fulfilled its promises under 'once country, two systems,'" the statement said.

Should Hong Kong's democracy move forward, the council said, "it will not only ensure the long-term stability of Hong Kong, but also be of profound significance to the long-term development" of relations between China and Taiwan and "for the development of democracy and rule of law for the entire Chinese people."

(Reuters) - Hong Kong police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse pro-democracy protests on Sunday and baton-charged a crowd blocking a key road in the government district in defiance of official warnings against illegal demonstrations.

Chaos had engulfed the city's Admiralty district as chanting protesters converged on police barricades surrounding other demonstrators, who had earlier launched a "new era" of civil disobedience to pressure Beijing into granting full democracy.

Student and pro-democracy leaders late on Sunday urged supporters to retreat due to safety concerns amid speculation police could fire rubber bullets as tensions escalated.

Some supporters peeled away although thousands remained. Chan Kin-man, one of the co-founders of the Occupy Central movement, said its leaders would remain until they got arrested.

Police, in lines five deep in places and wearing helmets and gas masks, used pepper spray against activists and shot tear gas into the air. The crowds fled several hundred yards, scattering their umbrellas and hurling abuse at police "cowards".

The demonstrators regrouped and returned however, and by early evening tens of thousands of protesters were thronging streets, including outside the prominent Pacific Place shopping mall that leads towards the Central financial district.

"If today I don't stand out, I will hate myself in future," said taxi driver Edward Yeung, 55, as he swore at police on the frontline. "Even if I get a criminal record it will be a glorious one."

A former British colony, Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a formula known as "one country, two systems" that guaranteed a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China. Universal suffrage was set as an eventual goal.

But Beijing last month rejected demands for people to freely choose the city's next leader, prompting threats from activists to shut down Central in what is being seen as the most tenacious civil disobedience action since Britain pulled out. China wants to limit elections to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing.

LEADER PLEDGES "RESOLUTE" ACTION

Police in full riot equipment later fired repeated rounds of tear gas to clear some of the roads in Admiralty and pushed the crowds towards Central. Health authorities said some 30 people needed treatment.

Police had not used tear gas in Hong Kong since breaking up protests by South Korean farmers against the World Trade Organization in 2005.

"We will fight until the end ... we will never give up," said Peter Poon, a protester in his 20s, adding that they may have to make a temporary retreat through the night.

Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying had earlier pledged "resolute" action against the protest movement, known as Occupy Central with Love and Peace.

"The police are determined to handle the situation appropriately in accordance with the law," Leung said, less than two hours before the police charge began.

A spokesperson for China's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office added that the central government fully supported Hong Kong's handling of the situation "in accordance with the law".

Communist Party leaders in Beijing are concerned about calls for democracy spreading to cities on the mainland, threatening their grip on power. Such dissent would never be tolerated on the mainland, where student protests in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square calling for democracy were crushed with heavy loss of life on June 4, 1989.

On the mainland, the phrase "Occupy Central" was blocked on Sunday afternoon on Weibo, China's version of Twitter. It had been allowed earlier in the day.

Later, a Hong Kong government statement urged the Occupy organizers to bring an end to the "chaos" for the overall interest of Hong Kong. The government said some public transport may be disrupted on Monday due to the protests.

A tearful Occupy organizer Benny Tai said he was proud of people's determination to fight for "genuine" universal suffrage, but that the situation was getting out of control, RTHK reported. He said he believed he would face heavy punishment for initiating the movement.

Inside the cordon, thousands had huddled in plastic capes, masks and goggles as they braced for a fresh police attempt to clear the area before Hong Kong re-opens for business in the morning. The city's financial markets are expected to open as usual on Monday.

"WE WILL WIN WITH LOVE AND PEACE"

Publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, a key backer of the democracy movement, said he wanted as big a crowd of protesters as possible, after a week of student demonstrations, to thwart any crackdown.

"The more Hong Kong citizens come, the more unlikely the police can clear up the place," said Lai, also wearing a plastic cape and workmen's protective glasses. "Even if we get beaten up, we cannot fight back. We will win this war with love and peace."

Pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan said three fellow legislators were among a small group of activists detained by police, including democratic leaders Albert Ho and Emily Lau.

Organizers said as many as 80,000 people thronged the streets in Admiralty, galvanized by the arrests of student activists on Friday. No independent estimate of the crowd numbers was available.

A week of protests escalated into violence when student-led demonstrators broke through a cordon late on Friday and scaled a fence to invade the city's main government compound. Police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd. The Hong Kong Federation of Students extended class boycotts indefinitely.

Police have so far arrested 78 people, including Joshua Wong, the 17-year-old leader of student group Scholarism, who was dragged away after he called on the protesters to charge the government premises.

Wong was released from police detention without charge on Sunday evening, the South China Morning Post reported. He told reporters that he planned to return to the protest site after resting.