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.

Rally director Etienne Lavigne admitted that the cancellation, which was made just 24 hours before the event's planned start in Lisbon, Portugal, was a hammer blow.

But he also said there was no question of the event being scrapped for good - even if it means finishing away from the Senegalese capital of Dakar - as it did in 2003, when Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt staged the finale.

"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.

But rally chiefs the Amaury Sport Organisation refused to listen and instead insisted that the event would continue to run it's planned eight stages through Mauritania before crossing into Senegal for the final two days.

A further warning of terrorist threats by French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, however, forced an emergency meeting, in which the ASO decided to cancel the event for the first time.

"We are warning them - it is dangerous," Kouchner said. "I hope that they have understood, but it's their business, they are a private organisation."

The cancellation is the most extreme measure taken by the ASO, who had already re-routed the event to avoid Niger, Algeria and northern Mali in order to minimise security risks.

The rally, which has become synonymous with danger since it's inception in 1979, has only had two non-accident-related deaths though.

Citroen truck driver Charles Cabannes was shot dead in Mali during the 1991 event, reportedly after crossing into a zone where the national army were fighting Touareg rebels.

And, in 1996, Mercedes truck competitor Laurent Gueguen died when he drove over a landmine in a zone under dispute between Morocco and Front Poliasario rebels.

Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport