Dakar “will return” next year

Dakar Rally chiefs insist that the event will return in 2009, despite this year's event having been cancelled due to terrorist threats in Africa.

"There will be a great event in 2009," said Lavigne. "We will start work on it from tomorrow.

"It could be another Dakar. It's a little complicated to imagine straightaway what will be The Dakar next year but we will work on it very quickly."

The cancellation of the rally stemmed from the murder of four French tourists by a terrorist group believed to be linked to Al Qaeda in Mauritania on Christmas Eve – which resulted in the French government warning people not to travel to the country.