Hong Kong's leader declared an end to more than 11 weeks of sit-in protests by pro-democracy demonstrators after police cleared the last remaining camp and arrested a handful of peaceful protesters Monday.

A committed core of around a dozen demonstrators had staged a sit-in at the center of the last site in the busy shopping district of Causeway Bay as police cut away barricades and tore down banners and shelters. 

Hong Kong police said Saturday they will clear out the last pro-democracy protest site early next week, days after the main camp was dismantled with over 200 demonstrators arrested.

The protest area in the retail hub of Causeway Bay is the smallest and the last remaining site occupied by the democracy movement, which took over stretches of the city's major streets for over two months.

Rush-hour traffic streamed through the heart of Hong Kong for the first time in more than two months Friday after police cleared the city's main pro-democracy protest camp with mass arrests -- but activists vowed that their struggle would go on.

The east-west artery through the city's business district had been blocked since September by the sprawling protest site in a campaign that demonstrators say has changed the city's vexed relationship with Beijing forever, and which has polarized public opinion in the city.

Hong Kong police began dismantling the city's main pro-democracy site Thursday, clearing away tents and barricades after more than two months of rallies, and hauling off a hard core of protesters who nevertheless vow that their struggle lives on.

Hundreds of police moved in from all sides of the Admiralty camp in the heart of the business district sweeping away tents and barricades before swooping on a core group at the center of the site, including student leaders and lawmakers.

A founder of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement branded the occupation of the city's main roads as "high-risk" Friday, urging protesters to turn to new methods of civil disobedience to push for electoral reform.

Benny Tai, one of the three founders of the Occupy Central with Love and Peace movement, said the movement has now run its course and warned that protesters now risk further violent clashes with police if they stay in their camps.

Hong Kong's student leaders said Thursday they would decide in the coming days whether to leave protest sites they have occupied for more than two months, following violent clashes.

The rallies for fully free leadership elections drew tens of thousands at their height, but numbers have dwindled as public support for the movement has waned.

The United States on Wednesday boosted its support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, calling on China to ensure that multiple candidates are allowed to run freely in 2017 elections. 

Beijing and Hong Kong authorities should "work together to ensure a competitive process for the election of the chief executive," the top U.S. diplomat for Asia, Daniel Russel, told US lawmakers.

The three original founders of Hong Kong's pro-democracy Occupy movement tearfully announced Tuesday they would "surrender" by turning themselves in to police and urged protesters still on the streets to retreat.

The announcement came after hundreds of pro-democracy protesters clashed with police late Sunday, leaving dozens injured in one of the worst nights of violence since rallies began over two months ago.

Hong Kong's leader said Monday that pro-democracy protests were "in vain" after police used pepper spray and batons on students trying to storm government headquarters, in some of the worst violence since the rallies began.

With the student-led protests now into their third month and frustrations mounting, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying hinted that further police action may be imminent, in his most forceful comments in recent weeks.

Musicians including Peter Gabriel and Pussy Riot are offering support to Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters in the form of photographic tributes.

In pictures that started being projected on an outdoor screen in Hong Kong's Admiralty District on Friday, the musicians each stand with umbrellas, a symbol of the two-month protests calling for free leadership elections in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.