Mosley warns the changes will be forced through if necessary

The Englishman is stepping down as president of motorsport's governing body the FIA in October and will leave a new rules package as his legacy.

Speaking ahead of the French GP, Mosley reiterated his fears that F1's current speeds are compromising driver safety.

"It is our duty to act before someone gets seriously hurt or killed. The speeds are dangerously fast," he said.

As part of the Concorde Agreement which governs the sport, Mosley will force team owners to put forward changes which will slash speeds - or introduce them himself without their approval.

Mosley admits agreement among the team bosses is "very unlikely" so has laid out what he wants them to do prior to their discussions, threatening to go ahead anyway if they disagree.

I no longer find it interesting to sit in long meetings, particularly with F1 and World Rally teams - some of the discussions are really tedious Max Mosley

Under his new rules, teams will have to cut engine capacity from three litres to 2.4 by 2006 or suffer rev limits.

They also face massive cuts on how many tyres they can use from next season onwards - down to just two for the entire race weekend - and will have a new aerodynamic package thrust upon them.

Mosley said: "The speeds are dangerously fast - we cannot afford to take this risk."

The former lawyer was not in the mood to spare F1's team bosses from criticism, describing one unnamed principal as "not the sharpest knife in the box".

He also claimed the group had achieved financial success "in spite of themselves".

Asked whether he might change his mind about retiring, he said: "I am not a Formula One team principal so I don't change my mind every 10 minutes."

We have become a significant player in Brussels Max Mosley

Explaining his decision to retire a year early, Mosley added: "You get to the stage where you've had enough. At a certain point you start thinking there's more to life than this. It's very hard work."

He said he was proud of the work he had done, particularly in developing the FIA into an organisation that has significant weight in political circles, particularly the European Union.

Among the developments he was responsible for pushing through was the Euro NCAP crash tests that have raised the safety levels of road cars in recent years.

"We have become a significant player in Brussels," Mosley said.

"We have created a forum which is a significant political body to do with every day road use.

"We have an endowment of $300m (�166m) thanks to Bernie for the Formula One money [which was paid to the FIA for the lease of F1 commercial rights for 100 years].

"Half of that gets spent on motorsport safety, half on road safety generally. That is very satisfying."