The High Court of Hong Kong rejected Tuesday the appeal put forward by some members of the civil servants for judicial review on civil service pay reduction.

Judge Michael Hartmann ruled that the pay cut, proposed by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government, was in line with the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR.

Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph W.P. Wong welcomed the decision of the court.

"We have already introduced a bill which will implement the pay reduction decision in two phrases starting from January 1, 2004," he said.

The government proposed the 4.75 percent pay cut as part of a package to reduce the public purse deficit, which had bloated to HK$70 billion (US$9 billion) by March.

"With the court case behind us, we sincerely wish the Legislative Council to examine our bill expeditiously so that we can implement the pay cut decision in accordance with our time table," he said.

Wong said they would continue to look at civil service policy in terms of not just the interest of civil service but also the overall interest of Hong Kong.

There are some 190,000 civil servants in Hong Kong.