JAKARTA - The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) confirmed Saturday there would be no last-minute Asian Games reprieve for banned weightlifting powerhouse China.

Both China, who won seven golds in the 2014 Asian Games, and Kazakhstan, who took one gold, are among nine nations currently serving 12-month International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) suspensions for multiple doping violations.

Rumours had circulated in Jakarta that China could be reinstated by the International Weightlifting Federation after the country's banned athletes suddenly appeared on the official Games website two days ago. But the IWF agreed at an executive board meeting in Lausanne on Friday to keep monitoring the nine countries before making any changes to their banned status.

"We follow the rules of the International Weightlifting Federation," OCA director general Husain Al Musallam told AFP after the meeting in Jakarta. "They (the IWF) had their meeting and they did not send us anything to say we can allow China or Kazakhstan athletes to take part," Al Musallam said.

"They were (on the website) because we were waiting, we were putting everything on standby so if the decision was taken we can put them there within five minutes. We were ready to allow them to compete but the decision was with the IWF."

China will compete in 38 of the 40 sports at the Asian Games, which begins officially with opening ceremonies in both the host cities Jakarta and Palembang later on Saturday. They are hot favourites to top the medals table with Kabaddi, the south Asian specialty, the only other discipline in which they will not have any athletes entered.

Kuwait welcomed back to Asian Games with OCA warning

Kuwait was warned by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) on Saturday to stop its "world record" of government interference in sport or face being exiled for a third time.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) this week provisionally lifted its ban on Kuwait, allowing the Gulf state's athletes to march under their own flag at Saturday's Asian Games opening ceremony in Jakarta.

But the IOC said that despite its "gesture of goodwill" the reasons for its original suspension remained valid. "This is a world record for government interference in the Olympic movement, no country is like this," OCA director general Husain Al Musallam told AFP after an executive board meeting discussed the matter in Jakarta on Saturday.

"We are very happy for the Kuwait National Olympic Committee and for the athletes," he said.

"We hope this will not happen in the future and the Kuwait government will respect the road map they have agreed with the IOC to lead to fresh, clean, transparent and democratic elections based on each sport's statutes approved by their respective international bodies."

World sports bodies led by the IOC and FIFA suspended Kuwait in October 2015 for a second time since 2010 for political interference in sport. The IOC said that in reinstating Kuwait provisionally that it "acknowledged the progress" and the "positive discussions with the Government of Kuwait".

Al Musallam said Kuwait did not have much time to prove it was trying to meet IOC requirements. "We are going to review the situation with the IOC on October 3 and 4 to see if any of the agreement has been implemented on the ground, or if there is nothing," said Al Musallam. "We really hope this thing will be finished."