The inaugural Afro-Asian Games to be held in Delhi in November were postponed today for security reasons, Indian Sports Minister Uma Bharti announced.
"The postponement of the Games was necessary in the new security scenario following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington," she said.
Fresh dates would be announced by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in a couple of days, she said.
The formal announcement came three days after top sports officials said the government had decided to put off the Games, scheduled to be held from November 3rd to 11th.
Many sports officials were relieved at the decision.
"We were working against time to get everything ready," a Sports Authority of India official said. "There was so much opposition that these appeared to be the Games no one wanted".
The Games, conceived in 1993 and put off three times before, were plagued by uncertainty from the start, partly because of differences between the sports minister and IOA president Suresh Kalmadi.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee stepped in and cleared the way for the games, but mounting costs and worry over completion dates dogged the project.
AFP