Organisers of the Paris-to-Dakar motor rally say a Portuguese driver with the support staff has been seriously injured by a landmine explosion in Western Sahara.

A rally organiser, Hubert Auriol, said the driver, Jose Eduardo Ribeiro, lost his left foot in the blast and was now in the care of a United Nations observer force in Western Sahara.

Today's eighth stage covering six-hundred kilometres takes the competitors across the border into neighbouring Mauritania, where the army has been instructed to protect them from attack by Tuareg rebels.

In 1994 Malian Tuareg rebels ambushed the drivers in eastern Mauritania and stole vehicles and money from them.

The Polisario Front which is seeking an independent Western Sahara yesterday withdrew its threat to disrupt the rally.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service