Dakar Rally organisers the Amaury Sports Organisation have announced that a replacement event will be held in Eastern Europe in April.

The Central European Rally will be run under the "Dakar Series" banner as a pre-cursor to the series that will start in its full version next year.

The Hungarian capital of Budapest will host the start on April 20, with competitors tackling a 3000 miles, half of which will be over special stages, passing through Romania, before finishing back in Hungary at Lake Balaton six days later.

The ASO said that Dakar regulars BMW, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and Schlesser, plus bike dominators KTM, are all hugely interested in competing in the event.

The Dakar Rally, scheduled to run in January, was cancelled just 24 hours before its planned start after the French foreign office advised against travel into Mauritania, where four French tourists had been murdered on Christmas Eve by a rebel gang believed to be linked to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

The ASO confirmed that they will be announcing plans for the 2009 Dakar Rally - which could take place in Chile - in the coming weeks.

Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport