Winter Olympics 2022: Oslo becomes latest to withdraw, leaving just Beijing and Kazakhstan capital Almaty

Krakow, Lviv and Stockholm had already pulled out the running

The Olympic Rings are illuminated in the Rosa Khutor Mountain Cluster village ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on January 31, 2014 in Rosa Khutor, Sochi, Russia. (Getty Images)

Oslo has become the latest city to officially withdraw from the race to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Organisers said they were left with no choice but to pull out after Norway's ruling Conservative Party said it could not support the necessary financial guarantees.

Public support had dwindled for the project since this year's lavish Winter Olympics in Sochi, which are estimated to have cost in the region of £30billion.

A statement from Oslo City Council read: "It has now become known that the Conservative Party parliamentary group has recommended not to grant a state guarantee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in 2022.

"[There is] no longer any realistic possibility that Parliament will go in for an Oslo Olympics in 2022, and Oslo will withdraw the application for government guarantees and subsidies."

Oslo becomes the fourth city to withdraw from the official 2022 bidding process after Krakow, Lviv and Stockholm also signalled their intention not to continue.

Beijing - which is bidding to become the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Olympics - and Kazakhstan capital Almaty - are the only cities to remain in the race.

The International Olympic Committee will elect the host city at its IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31 next year.

PA