Sainz will race in Greece this weekend as a favour to Citroen.

The double world rally champion, 43, will drive a Volkswagen Touareg and have German Andreas Schulz, who has won the Dakar twice, as his co-pilot.

"This is a challenge that's always been in my mind," the Spaniard told sports daily Marca.

"It isn't my objective to try to win the race in my first year. What we have to do is be relatively competitive."

Sainz decided to end his world rally career in November after winning more championship rallies than any other driver but recently came out of retirement to complete a favour to former team Citroen.

He returned to race the Rally of Turkey earlier this month, finishing fourth, and is set to race once more for Citroen in the Rally of Greece this weekend.

But Sainz has stressed that once that is over he will return focus on one of his lifetime ambitions of competing at Dakar.