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DATE=1/12/2000 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=DAKAR / CAIRO RALLY (L) NUMBER=2-257998 BYLINE=SCOTT BOBB DATELINE=CAIRO CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: Organizers of the Dakar-to-Cairo endurance rally are making preparations (ED'S: have begun) to airlift several-hundred vehicles and 15-hundred participants in the race from Niamey, the capital of Niger, to southern Libya. The airlift, unprecedented in the more than 20-years of the rally, was launched after a terrorist threat obliged organizers to cancel four legs through the northern desert of Niger. Correspondent Scott Bobb reports. TEXT: Organizers say the airlift will take four-days and the rally is to resume Monday or Tuesday, after vehicles, equipment and competitors are flown from Niamey to airports in (Sabbah and Waw el-Kebir) southern Libya. They say they cancelled the next four legs of the famous endurance test after the French government said it believed there was a serious risk of an external terrorist attack in northern Niger. The government of Niger fought Touareg rebels in the north during the 1990's and anti-government rebels are also operating in the northern regions of neighboring Chad. But sources say they believe the threat comes from militants of Algeria's Armed Islamic Group, which has been fighting the government in Algiers since the cancellation of elections eight-years ago, which Islamist parties appeared likely to win. The government of Niger last year arrested a group of these guerrillas while they were entering the country from Algeria. /// REST OPT /// Tuesday's leg of the rally, from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to Niamey was won by Portugal's Carlos Sousa, who made the nearly 700-kilometer run across forest and desert tracks in less than six hours. France's Stephane Peterhansel came in second in the leg, while overall rally-leader, Kenjiro Shinozuka of Japan, came in third. Competitors were disappointed by the cancellation of the remaining legs in Niger, which are said to be among the most difficult in the rally. The race is due to end at Egypt's Giza pyramids in 10-days. (SIGNED) NEB/SB/GE/ENE/RAE 12-Jan-2000 11:41 AM EDT (12-Jan-2000 1641 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .