ABOUT 200 Hong Kong protesters have marched to the home of the city's Beijing-backed leader to push their case for greater democracy a day after talks between student leaders and senior officials failed to break the deadlock.

Others continued to occupy main streets in the city, where they have camped for nearly a month in protest against a central government plan that would give Hong Kong people the chance to vote for their own leader in 2017 but tightly restrict the candidates to Beijing loyalists.

A wide chasm separates the protesters and the government, which has labelled their actions illegal and repeatedly said their demand for open nominations is impossible under the laws of the former British colony.

Expectations had been low for a breakthrough in Tuesday's talks which pitted five of the city's most senior officials against five tenacious but poised student leaders.

Protesters were unhappy about what they felt was a lack of substantive concessions.

Andy Lau, a 19-year-old college student, said now was the time to step things up. Demonstrators marching to the home of the city's leader, Leung Chun-ying, repeated calls for him to step down. Many were angry at remarks he made this week that more representative democracy was unacceptable because it would result in poorer people having more say in politics.