BAMAKO -- Mali sought on Saturday to soothe fears of insecurity after reports of armed gangs roaming the impoverished West African nation's borders forced the cancellation of two weekend stages of the Dakar rally.

"We have taken security measures, our troops are on the ground, they control the whole area. Really, there is no reason to worry," said Colonel Salif Traore of the rally's Malian organizing committee.

Organizers said on Friday they had decided to bypass northern Mali and cancel the 10th and 11th stages of the rally after advice from French and Malian authorities. It was the first time in four years that the Dakar organizers had to cancel two stages.

Traore did not confirm the presence of armed gangs along the desert border but large swathes of the burning Sahara desert are lawless no-man's lands, where opportunistic bandits and former rebels sometimes seek refuge.

"As soon as you have information that there are elements in a border zone, whatever their intentions, it is wiser to take conservative measures," Traore said.

"Even if there are bandits, we have enough security and armed forces to keep them under control and eventually kick them out of the country," he said.

In 2000, four stages of the event run from Dakar to Cairo were cancelled after warnings that Algerian Islamic guerrillas were planning an ambush in Niger, one of Mali's neighbors.

Mali also sits on Algeria's southern border and hit headlines in August when 14 European hostages who had been held in the Sahara for five months by Algerian militants were released to Malian authorities.

Patrice Clerc, head of rally organizers Amaury Sport Organization, said the stages were stopped as a precaution.

"We decided to abandon the Nema-Mopti stage and today instead of going from Nema to Mopti, the participants will go from Nema to Bamako," he told Reuters on Sunday. Nema is in neighboring Mauritania.

Rally organizers said competitors would head from Mauritania to Mali's capital Bamako, with motorcycle riders flown being flown there, before heading onto Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso.

Competitive stages will resume after a scheduled rest day on Monday.

Break time
PARIS -- The Dakar rally took an unscheduled break on Saturday, steering clear of armed bandits in Mali and allowing a depleted field time to recover from desert ordeals.

Just 144 vehicles made it to Friday night's bivouac, fewer than half the number of original entrants who set out on January 1, with others still stuck in the ninth stage from Tidjikja in Mauritania to Nema.

Organizers called off the weekend stages in Mali after reports of armed bandits lying in wait across the Mauritanian border.

Instead the caravan headed to the Malian capital Bamako before doubling back to Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso for competitive stages to resume after a scheduled rest day on Monday.

Organizers said on Saturday that competitors arriving at the Nema bivouac, end of the ninth stage, after 0730 GMT would be given a common penalty of 21 hours.

They must also reach Bobo Dioulasso before 1800 GMT on Monday to remain in the rally.

France's Stephane Peterhansel leads the overall cars' standings with an advantage of more than an hour over Mitsubishi teammate Hiroshi Masuoka, the Japanese chasing his third successive win.

"At first I thought that the cancellation of the next two stages was to allow the competitors to rest," said Peterhansel. "Anyhow, it will be good for everyone."

Friday's leg was the longest competitive stage of the event and many crews have spent days and nights without sleep in the desert driving and working on their vehicles.

"This, combined with information received by both the French and Mali authorities about potential bandit activity, left the organizers with no alternative but to annul the legs to ensure the safety of all personnel," said a Mitsubishi team statement.

It was the first time in four years that the Dakar organizers had to cancel two stages.

In 2000, four stages of the event run from Dakar to Cairo were cancelled after warnings that Algerian Islamic guerrillas were planning an ambush in Niger.

"It has been a typical Dakar Rally so far," Mitsubishi director Sven Quandt told the Eurosport Web site. "But maybe the organizers pushed it a little too far this time in stretching the resources of teams and privateers."

In the bikes, Spain's Nani Roma has a three-minute lead over France's Richard Sainct, who feared the cancellation of stages would hit his hopes hard.

"This is a bad decision for me," he declared. "I cannot make up time during these two days and I would have had chances to do so."