A planned luxury train to Tibet has been postponed for the second time in a year, the operator said Monday, adding the global slowdown - not simmering tension in the Himalayan region - was to blame.

Tangula Luxury Trains, which was expected to launch high-class tours from Beijing to Lhasa in April this year, said it would delay the start of package holidays on the world’s highest railway until spring 2010.

“The rescheduling of our official launch was a very recent decision and was taken by our management in light of the current global economic climate,” a Beijing-based spokeswoman told AFP.