IT IS hard to remember the high hopes that originally surrounded yesterday's meeting of British and Chinese foreign ministers in New York.
The fact the session was taking place at all was seen, when first announced during Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd's July visit to Beijing, as proof Sino-British relations were on the mend, amid widespread predictions a deal on the 1994-95 polls would be struck during the meeting.
Even little more than a month ago there was still a general expectation the New York summit would see rapid progress towards an agreement on the two most contentious issues to be resolved, the composition of the nine new functional constituencies and theElection Committee.
Newspapers were also optimistically reporting that, at the least, an accord ending the long-running dispute over the future of military lands, would be finalised during the talks. In the event, such predictions turned out to be wide of the mark. For whenMr Hurd - like most in the Foreign Office, a self-proclaimed professional optimist - said only ''a little'' progress had been made, after 21/4 hours with Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, what he meant was there had been none at all.
This means that, unless there is a sudden breakthrough, the talks on electoral arrangements are now entering their end game. Next week's 13th round will be followed by a 14th and 15th round later in the month, and then, most likely, that will be it.
British officials can hardly hide their frustration: after having given so much ground, and effectively abandoned all the main planks of Governor Chris Patten's original political reform blueprint, Beijing is still refusing to make the slightest concessions in return.