Under pressure to stay on, says Mosley

"They made the mistake of dancing on my grave before I was buried," the 69-year-old Briton told the Mail on Sunday newspaper in an interview.

The International Automobile Federation president suggested the F ormula One Teams Association, led by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, had made a serious miscalculation. "It's no good the teams getting a PR agency to claim I am dead and buried when I am standing here as large as life. I am under pressure now from all over the world to stand for re-election," he said.

"I do genuinely want to stop. But if there is going to be a big conflict with the car industry, for example, with the FOTA teams, then I won't stop," he added. "I will do whatever I have to do. It's not in my nature to walk away from a fight."

Montezemolo and FOTA came to an agreement with the FIA on Wednesday to scrap Mosley's planned budget cap and avert a breakaway series.

Mosley said he would not stand for re-election in October and looked forward to a quiet summer. It was understood that the FIA Senate, under Monaco's Michel Boeri, would handle Formula One matters in the interim.

A day later, the FIA president suggested that the deal could collapse unless Montezemolo apologised for likening him to a dictator. While expressing anger and astonishment at Montezemolo's comments, although he himself labelled some team bosses 'loonies' (lunatics) at the British GP, Mosley also dismissed the Italian.

"I don't really expect Luca will apologise or withdraw in the way that he should," he said of a foe, who has largely ignored the Briton's recent statements.