Local NPC deputies should act as middlemen in the crisis surrounding the Court of Final Appeal landmark ruling, it was suggested yesterday.

Cheng Yiu-tong, an influential local deputy to the National People's Congress, proposed his colleagues should invite the NPC's standing committee to interpret some provisions in the wake of the ruling on abode.

This would be less damaging, he said at a new year's reception, than either having the Government inviting the standing committee to reinterpret the provisions in the Basic Law or letting it take the initiative.

Executive Councillor Antony Leung Kam-chung did not rule out Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie having to return to Beijing to hold talks with the mainland authorities.