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AKARTA: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has decided to delay his visit to Australia until February next year from the initial plan of next week because of scheduling problems.

Presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said the President had confirmed he would be going to Australia in February and would talk before the country's parliament as well as holding bilateral talks with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

"The President has said he would make the visit in February," he said.

The cancellation of the visit has sparked wide speculation in Australia that Indonesia has lost patience on the issue of the boat people, who have had to be given refuge on Indonesian territory after being intercepted by Australian authorities.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has said opposition claims that Yudhoyono postponed a trip to Australia because of tensions surrounding a group of asylum seekers is a "massive overstatement".

News of Yudhoyono's decision to postpone a visit to Australia early next week comes as 56 Tamil asylum seekers are still refusing to leave the Oceanic Viking and come ashore to Indonesia.

The opposition claim Rudd's handling of the month-long stand-off is to blame, but Smith says it is due to scheduling problems and domestic matters.

He says the trip was never formally announced because discussions over the trip are still ongoing.

"Sometimes you see overstatements and sometimes you see massive overstatements, and I think the opposition on this matter should just quietly calm down," he was quoted as saying by ABC News.

Australian opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull says President Yudhoyono's change in plans shows the relationship between the two countries is strained.