According to Korean website, KR Auto, South Korea looks set to host a round of the Formula One World Championship from 2010.

The Korea Auto Valley Operation (KAVO) and the regional government of Cholla-Namdo, the partnership behind the venture, is hoping to sign the deal on October 2, at a ceremony to be attended by Bernie Ecclestone.

It is understood that the contract is for a seven-year deal, commencing in 2010.

The track will be located near to Mokp'o, a major port on the tip of Muan Peninsula, at the south-western end of the Korean Peninsula.

Construction work will begin next year, with completion expected in 2009.

In 2000, Ecclestone was awarded £6m, when a London High Court Judge ruled that the Englishman could keep the money, which had originally been handed over by a South Korean company as a guarantee for the rights to host F1 races at the Sepoong Circuit in Kunsan City.

The deal, between Ecclestone's FOM and the Sepoong Engineering Construction Co. Ltd in 1996 had been made public at that year's British Grand Prix.

The late - and great - Dr Harvey Postlethwaite assisted the Koreans in the design of the track, but the project fell through following the collapse of the Korean economy in late 1997.