This year's Dakar Rally could still go ahead after Chile made an ambitious offer to host the event.

The country's government said that it will write to the event organisers the Amaury Sports Organisation to offer it a lifeline to save the rally that was cancelled a day before its scheduled start at the weekend due to security concerns.

"We've taken up the concerns of the federations [of auto and motorcycle racing] and our intent is to satisfy their needs," said Chile's undersecretary of sports Jaime Pizarro.

Oscar Santelices, the director of Chile's national tourist service, said that the country had the challenging terrain and the business infrastructure to support the event, and said that some of the route could run over the border and into Argentina, to the country's east.

"[The] most important is what the French ASO decides. We're preparing a letter laying out our official proposal," Santelices said.

"Deciding where (the rally) starts and where it finishes is the ASO's task. But first we have to bring it to South America."

The rally had been scheduled to start in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon at the weekend, but the murder of four French tourists in Mauritania on Christmas Eve caused the French foreign office to advise against travel to the African country.

Their advice was eventually heeded by the ASO, who cancelled the marathon event for the first time in its 30-year history.

Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport