The FIA has used the latest meeting of the World Motor Sport Council to announce a series of minor changes to the World Rally Championship regulations.

The changes are split between the 2008 and 2009 seasons, with the key changes occurring for the latter, when events will be able to run over mixed surfaces - opening the door for events to run on a mixture of gravel and asphalt. However, any mixed surface event will have to use one surface on two consecutive days.

Also for 2009, the total length of the special stages will be increased from the current maximum of 360km up to 400km.

Ahead of that comes a series of smaller changes which will be implemented from 1 January 2008, the main one of which will see the running order for each day determined by the event classification rather than going on championship positions.

The more minor changes will see the term 'leg' replaced by 'day' to 'aid public understanding' while there will be a ten minute final service prior to the finish podium - with the extra service intended to create the chance for the service park to remain an attraction until the event draws to a close.