Belgian Minister to Campaign for Spa

A Belgian regional minister plans to meet Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone later this week as part of a campaign to get the country's Spa-Francorchamps track back on the circuit this year.

Serge Kubla, Economy Minister for the southern French-speaking region of Wallonia where the track is located, would likely travel to London to meet with Ecclestone, Kubla's spokeswoman Francoise Zonemberg said on Monday.

The track lost its place on the 2003 calendar last October after a new law banning tobacco advertising discouraged teams from racing at Spa. Most teams get their sponsorship from tobacco companies.

But the Green Party - the law's biggest supporter - lost the country's May 18 general election, raising hopes the new government will amend the law to get the track back on the circuit.

"The idea is to get it on the government's agenda," Zonemberg said.

International Automobile Federation (FIA) President Max Mosley said on Saturday he was open to welcoming Belgium back into the fold.

"If Belgium solved the tobacco problem they would obviously have a strong case because it's a circuit that we all like," he said.

The law will ban tobacco sponsorship from August - about a year ahead of European Union plans for the region. The Spa race had been scheduled for August 31.

Dropping the Belgian Grand Prix from the Formula One calendar caused uproar in its home town of Spa because the local economy used to benefit from the thousands of spectators who came to watch the race every year.