Southern Chinese authorities have given in to demands of protesting villagers after a nearly two-week standoff with police, releasing detainees and returning some confiscated land to farmers in a rare compromise.

Protest leader Yang Semao says a senior provincial official told him and another village representative in a meeting Wednesday that four villagers being held by police would be released over the next few days and land from one development project would be returned to the villagers.

Yang says police on Tuesday night withdrew and removed the roadblocks that they had set up leading into the village.

Wukan villagers angered by the sale of farmland without their consent drove out local officials and police almost two weeks ago.