Mauretania cleared for Dakar Rally

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauretania -- The Dakar Rally will pass through Mauretania next month despite security worries sparked by recent Al-Qaeda linked attacks in the country.

The Rally, which starts in Lisbon on January 5, is scheduled to go through Mauretania between January 11 and 19.

A total of 2000 soldiers and 2000 plain clothes officers will monitor the vehicles as they proceed through on their way to the finishing point in Dakar on January 20.

"We are going ahead with the Mauritanian stages of the rally.... It now seems that the security situation is back on track," Etienne Lavigne, the French director of the event, said.

"There is nothing to fear, every precaution has been put in place," Interior Minister Yall Zakaria added.

Zakaria said he told the rally inspectors that "all necessary measures have been taken by the government to ensure that the event's passage through Mauritania takes place in the best possible conditions."

He added: "They left feeling reassured and comforted at the end of our discussions. (This week's) attacks are isolated incidents which should not be interpreted as proof that Mauritania is gripped by unrest."

The organizers sent a team to examine conditions and they arrived on Thursday, the day that three soldiers were killed during an armed ambush in the northeast of the country.

Three days earlier, four French adventure tourists were shot dead and a fifth injured by three Mauritanians, said by government officials to have Al-Qaeda links.

The suspects are still on the run after fleeing across the southeastern border with Senegal.

Rally chief Lavigne met with French embassy officials, who are monitoring the advice they give to travelers.

Terror threats from Mauritania, normally seen as a safe country to travel through, forced the cancellation of two planned stages between Nema and Timbuktu in neighboring Mali during last year's rally.

Some 245 motorbikes, 20 quads, 205 cars and 100 trucks have registered for the event which covers 9,273 kilometers (5,762 miles). E-mail to a friend