Punchestown has been confirmed as the venue for the 2003 European three-day eventing championships.

The news was announced by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) yesterday, following the completion of lengthy negotiations concerning payment of a £1.2 million guarantee owed to the FEI for the past three years.

The FEI had provisionally allocated the 2003 championships to Punchestown at its general assembly in San Francisco back in April, but stipulated that final agreement rested on a satisfactory outcome to negotiations about the debt.

Bord Fβilte had agreed a £1.2 million guarantee - reduced from an original figure of £4 million - to the FEI for staging the 1998 World Equestrian Games. It was never envisaged that plans to stage the games at the RDS and Punchestown would collapse but, following the almost simultaneous withdrawal of Government support and sponsorship from Nissan Ireland, the games were reallocated to Rome.

As a result, the FEI called in its guarantee and, following legal advice on both sides, a High Court hearing was due to be held this summer. However, with the announcement that Punchestown had been earmarked as the venue for the 2003 championships, negotiations were put back on track.

A series of deadlines imposed by the FEI, the first of which expired at the end of May, came and went, but a breakthrough was finally made earlier this month resulting in yesterday's announcement confirming Punchestown as the venue for the 2003 Europeans.

The Irish Federation has now appointed a newly formed company, Eventing At Punchestown Ltd, to organise the championships as part of a three-year development plan. The company has negotiated the sole rights to stage international horse trials at Punchestown.

Tim Philips, director and CEO of Eventing At Punchestown, confirmed yesterday that bulldozers will be moving into Punchestown next week to start work on the course.

Philips is working in tandem with Eventing At Punchestown chairman Avril Doyle, who was appointed as president of the Irish Federation earlier this year, and Richard Hayes, chief executive of IFG, title sponsors of the Punchestown three-day event.

This year's IFG fixture, which was due to run in May, was postponed in March in a bid to save the four-day National Hunt Festival in April. In the midst of the foot-and-mouth crisis, the festival was split between Fairyhouse and Leopardstown, but the IFG event was never rescheduled.

Racing resumes on the main track at Punchestown on Sunday and, immediately after the weekend, work is due to begin on the Tommy Brennan-designed cross-country course. Brennan was the brains behind the much-acclaimed track for the 1991 European championships, when Ireland won team silver behind the winning British quartet.