Around 65,000 people are said to have joined in on the streets of the capital city, which will co-host the Games with Palembang from August 18.

A traditional line dance called a "poco-poco" took place with a long trail of thousands of people taking part.

Organisers are hoping that the amount of dancers who turned up will break the world record.

Widodo and his wife Iriana joined other dancers who were all dressed in red and white, the colours of the Indonesian flag, and were flanked by several other high ranking officials.

"Poco-poco is the original culture of Indonesia and it's a native dance, so we are now performing a mass poco-poco dance with 65,000 people setting the world record and showing and reiterating that poco-poco belongs to Indonesia," police chief Tito Karnavian, who was one of those who took part, said to First Post.

High school student Farid Akbar added: "I am happy that I can help promote a tradition that could have been forgotten."

In June, Widodo called for greater promotion of the Asian Games.

According to Antara News, the country's leader said efforts to advertise the event had not "intensified" and that "fever" for the Games had not set in.

He had earlier highlighted his support for the Games by wearing a black jacket promoting the event.

Ten thousand athletes from 45 National Olympic Committees will compete at the Asian Games in all.

Forty sports, 67 disciplines and 463 events are scheduled.

They will run through to September 2.