Islamabad: The ninth South Asian Federation Games, which has been postponed thrice due to different reasons, may be shifted from Pakistan to Sri Lanka, top officials said on Saturday.

The Executive Committee meeting of the South Asian Sports Federation (SASF), scheduled on April 10 and 11, is likely to move a resolution to shift the Games out of Pakistan so that the troubled event could go ahead.

Sri Lanka, which was supposed to host the next edition, are most likely to get the Games, Pakistan news agency APP on Saturday quoted officials as saying. The venue can be shifted if five of the member countries so desire. India, who pulled out of the Games citing security threats to its athletes in Islamabad, is not attending the meeting.

The jinxed Games were first postponed in the wake of September 11 terror attacks on the United States and then due to the troubled relations between India and Pakistan last year. The Games were then scheduled for March 29 to April 7 this year but the war in Iraq forced the organisers to defer it once again.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Saturday favoured an amendment in the SAF Games constitution to make a provision for a "guest participant", and said it would like to invite China if the Games were still held in Islamabad.

"China or for that matter any other Asian country may be included as guest participant to impart more glamour to the biennial SAF Games," the officials said.

"(But) Pakistan will prefer China as the outside participating country if the meeting somehow decides that this country should be retained as the hosts for the 9th SAF Games.”

"Our friend China is a sporting powerhouse and its participation will give added glamour to the event." They said if the Games are shifted to Sri Lanka, the host country would be free to invite any other Asian country as guests.

"Sri Lanka, for its part, can invite Japan or Korea to compete," they said. Delegates from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan, which was included as invitee at the last SASF meeting in January, will attend the Executive Board meeting.

PTI