THE hard-line government position on Governor Chris Patten's reform proposals is delaying Sino-British negotiations, according to District Board members. Kowloon City District Board member Wong Chi-keung said the improving relationship between Hong Kong and China was being strained by the Hong Kong Government's hard-line position. ''Both countries tried to show their sincerity during the meeting of the foreign ministers in Beijing, but this does not seem to have bothered our Government at all,'' he said. The Acting Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Peter Lai Hing-ling, in his reply to a group of District Board members, defended the proposals outlined in Mr Patten's last policy speech. Speaking about the abolition of appointed seats in the District Board, Mr Lai said: ''What we have proposed is a final step in the gradual process of a reduction of appointed District Board seats over the last decade.'' On the broadening of the franchise for functional constituency elections, a move attacked by the Chinese Government, Mr Lai said: ''There is nothing in our proposals which are incompatible with the Basic Law.''
