Five hundred Santas took part in the first run in 2001

Dial-a-Ride says it will focus instead on its transport service this year, but the Santa Run will be back in 2007.

The 4.5m (7.2km) run in Newtown, Powys, set a world record in 2004 when 4,260 racers dressed as Santa Claus competed.

It has raised �350,000 for charity, but attracted unwelcome headlines in 2004 when a fight flared eight hours after the event and five men were fined.

The race not only put Newtown on the map, but put Wales on the map too Conservative AM Glyn Davies

Since 2001, the run has benefited 900 different charities, and attracted runners from as far afield as the United States, Australia, South Africa and Canada.

No-one at the charity was available for comment on Friday, but a statement on the Dial-a-Ride website said: "This year's Santa Run which was to take place on Sunday, 3 December has been cancelled.

"Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused to all its supporters and entrants.

"The charity is to concentrate on all its members and support the charity gives to Montgomeryshire over the next 12 months."

But the organisers said the run would return in 2007 "bigger and better".

Newtown is turned into a sea of red and white for the day

Competitor and local Conservative AM Glyn Davies called this year's cancellation a "massive blow" to the area.

Mr Davies, who has competed in four of the five races, said: "It had become a personal event for my family and I and we all took part, as have many other families over the years.

"The race not only put Newtown on the map, but put Wales on the map too."

Mr Davies' Liberal Democrat opponents, Montgomeryshire AM and MP Mick Bates and Lembit Opik, also took part.

"The Santa run was the only time I could thrash them. They won the elections and I beat them in the Santa run," he joked.

The Powys run held the world record for the most number of people until a similar event in Liverpool outstripped it last year.

The event has been viewed as a huge success, despite the unwanted attention it received in 2004.

Organisers emphasised at the time that none of the people involved in trouble the night after that event took part in the run, although some were in Santa outfits.

It led to five men being convicted of public order offences.