BEIJING - A draft decision on the granting of universal suffrage in Hong Kong will be submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, for deliberation before its bimonthly session closes on Sunday, according to a statement issued on Wednesday.

The draft, about applying universal suffrage in the election of the special administrative region's chief executive in 2017 and its Legislative Council in 2016, came out of a meeting presided over by Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, in Beijing.

According to a statement issued after the meeting, Zhang and vice chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee heard reports on the issues by Li Fei, vice-general secretary of the NPC Standing Committee.

No other details about the draft were available.

Committee members on Tuesday examined a report from Leung Chun-ying, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), on the electoral reform.

The current chief executive was elected by a committee in 2012. Hong Kong plans to introduce universal suffrage, the right for citizens to vote, during the next election in 2017.

The Basic Law of Hong Kong requires candidates for the HKSAR chief executive be nominated by a "broadly representative" committee.