German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the first world leader to announce that she will not attend the Summer Olympics in Beijing, according to a report in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper on Saturday.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, confirmed that Merkel was staying away, the Guardian reported, adding that neither he nor German Interior Minister for Sport Wolfgang Schäuble would attend the opening ceremony.

Members of Merkel's Christian Democratic party had encouraged talk of an Olympic boycott over the recent crackdown in Tibet earlier this week and said that a boycott of the Summer Games should remain on the table, the Guardian reported.

Merkel had previously angered the Chinese leadership by receiving Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Berlin for private talks.