The International Cricket Council has decided to postpone next month's Champions Trophy in Pakistan until October 2009.

The decision to postpone the event was taken on Sunday after the ICC Board agreed unanimously on the issue.

“Pakistan will retain the right to host the tournament but it was agreed that if other members continued to express reservations over issues of safety and security then the ICC Board would have the right to decide about the tournament's location,” the ICC statement said.

The decision was arrived at via a teleconference of the ICC's executive board.

South Africa was the first nation to pull out over security threat and Australia, New Zealand and England were expected to follow suit after Pakistan was considered dangerous to tour on security grounds.