Indonesia's capital was due to host the quadrennial age group multi-sport competition as a test event for the 2018 Asian Games.

But they have now cancelled the Asian Youth Games and no replacement has been found.

Indonesia is, however, still set to host the 2021 edition which has already been awarded to Surabaya.

Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) officials revealed at today's Executive Board meeting here that they have agreed to postpone the event for four years due to the difficulty of finding a replacement.

If an interested city does happen to come forward, however, they will adopt a flexible approach and still consider supporting the idea.

The Asian Youth Games was first held in Singapore in 2009.

A second and most recent edition then took place in Nanjing, China in 2013.

The process to find a host city for 2017 has been fraught with difficulties.

Hambantota in Sri Lanka was originally due to play host before the event was shifted to Colombo following organisational problems.

The Games were then shifted out of Sri Lanka completely last year when it was announced Jakarta was stepping in.

A specific reason has not been given for the cancellation today but it is likely to be too much of a financial and logistical commitment considering Asian Games organisers are already operating on a tight timetable.

Jakarta has been ordered to now find an alternative test event ahead of the Asian Games.

Current plans are for an "Asian Sport Championship Series" to take place in November next year.

Sports currently expected to appear are archery, badmiton, baskebtall, boxing, football, volleyball and weightlifting.