The FIA, the governing body of the World Rally Championship, has confirmed the calendars that will be adopted in 2009 and 2010 following a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on Friday in Monte Carlo.

As previously announced back in the summer, the schedule will be slashed to just twelve events per season from '09 - four less than has become the norm in recent years. In a bid to include new countries the WRC will also adopt a rotation system, with 24 different events taking place over the space of two years.

As part of this plan, it means the Rallye Monte Carlo will not be apart of the WRC in 2009, although it will return in 2010.

Rally Ireland has thus been given the honour of opening the 2009 season, while it will conclude with the Wales Rally GB.

Cyprus has also been given a slot for '09 - even though this year's candidate event didn't run exactly smoothly, while Poland will run a WRC event for he very first time. Other new events include rallies in Russia, Bulgaria and Indonesia, although these latter three are all pencilled in for 2010.

The full line-ups are as follows:

2009 FIA World Rally Championship calendar

1 Feb Ireland
15 Feb Norway
15 Mar Cyprus
5 Apr Portugal
26 Apr Argentina
24 May Italy
14 Jun Greece
28 Jun Poland NEW
2 Aug Finland
6 Sep Australia
4 Oct Spain
25 Oct GB

2010 FIA World Rally Championship calendar

24 Jan Monte Carlo
14 Feb Sweden
7 Mar Mexico
11 Apr Jordan
25 Apr Turkey
16 May New Zealand
20 Jun Indonesia NEW
18 Jul Russia NEW
8 Aug Bulgaria NEW
22 Aug Germany
12 Sep Japan
10 Oct France