Max Mosley, the president of motor sport's governing body, has played down the threat of a breakaway Formula One world championship.

A group of European car manufacturers has signed an agreement to set up a rival championship in 2008 because they are unhappy about the German TV company Kirch Group's ownership of Slec, the company that holds the commercial rights to F1.

"There are three groups involved in this," Mosley said.

"That is Bernie Eccleston (F1's commercial boss), Kirch and the manufacturers. They have all been enormously successful in business.

"If there were two championships, we would authorise and regulate them both.

"We would treat any rival championship exactly the same as F1 - that is part of our agreement with the European Commission.

"But all three groups are capable of seeing that it is in the interests of all to have one championship involving all three parties.

Mosley emphasised that the car manufacturers have more than enough resources to put together a rival championship.

"They have the means to do it," he said.

"But I think good sense and business sense will prevail and there will be a deal."

The manufacturers - BMW, Renault, Ford, Fiat and Mercedes-Benz - continue to toe the official line that a rival series will be set up by 2008.

They want guarantees that F1 will remain on free-to-air television and not be put only on pay TV when Kirch - a leader in the pay TV field - takes control.

Kirch owns 50% of F1 through its relationship with another TV company EM.TV, and it intends to take up its option to buy another 25%.

The manufacturers want to buy a share of the business. But there is a disagreement over how much they should pay, as the value of the shares has dropped by over 60% since EM.TV bought them last year.