Honda plans to return to the Formula One circuit with a full racing team in 2000, marking the end of an eight-year absence from the sport its engines once dominated.

Honda president Hiroyuki Yoshino, speaking in Tokyo, said that a comprehensive team, using its own engine, chassis and management, would begin full-scale testing early next year with an eye on the 2000 championship.

Honda had tested a prototype race car near Milan, Italy, on December 15th, he said.

The new team means Honda's approach will be similar to that of Italian constructor Ferrari, which manages its own team as well as making its own engines and chassis. Other major carmakers on the circuit supply their engines for independent racing teams to use.

Honda had announced its intention to return to the track earlier this year but had given no date for its comeback, which has been the subject of much speculation in the Japanese media.

Yoshino said that many of Honda's engineers joined the company out of an interest in F1 racing and that the return would give a healthy boost to morale. He doubted that the company would be able to take the championship during its first year back on the circuit, although it hoped to be a viable contender within three years.

Honda took part in F1 racing as a full team between 1964 and 1968, winning only two out of 35 races. In the 1968 French Grand Prix, Frenchman Jo Schlesser was burned to death when his untried V8 Honda overturned and burst into flames, with magnesium in the chassis feeding the flames.

The manufacturer shot to prominence in the sport in the late 1980s and early 1990s when it dominated the constructors' championship, winning the title a record six consecutive years until 1991.

The company, under founder Soichiro Honda, came back as an engine supplier in 1984 and powered Williams and McLaren to constructors titles from 1987 to 1991, in the process helping star racers including the late Brazilian Ayrton Senna and Frenchman Alain Prost to the drivers' championship.

Honda withdrew from the sport after the completion of the 1992 circuit, stating that it had achieved its objectives.

Honda has also unveiled a prototype hybrid car, powered alternately by petrol and electricity, for sale in Japan, North America, Europe and Asia from late 1999.