Jordan has invited embattled motor racing head Max Mosley, fighting to stay in office after a lurid sex scandal, to be a guest of honour at the country's world rally championship debut next week.

A spokesman for the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) said Mosley had accepted the invitation from Jordan's Prince Feisal Al Hussein, chairman of the country's motorsport body.

The April 24-27 rally will be the first time the world championship has visited the Arab country. The prince is the brother of King Abdullah and also president of Jordan's national Olympic committee.

"Max has been a strong friend and ally to Jordan and has supported us since we announced our bid three years ago, so we are delighted that he will be sharing the historic occasion with us," the prince said on the rally Web site (www.jordanrally.com). The Jordanian invitation contrasted with a rebuff for the 68-year-old Briton from Bahrain's crown prince before that country's Formula One race this month.

Mosley did not travel to Manama, with the FIA saying he had been detained by legal matters after the tabloid News of the World published details of what they depicted as a Nazi-style sado-masochistic orgy with prostitutes. However the Times newspaper said Bahrain's crown prince Sheikh Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa had written to Mosley asking him to stay away because "it would be inappropriate for you to be in Bahrain at this time."

Mosley, whose father Oswald founded the pre-war British Union of Fascists, has defended his actions as "harmless and completely legal" and has denied any Nazi connotations to the scandal. The FIA has called an extraordinary general assembly for June 3 in Paris with Mosley, who has ignored repeated calls to resign, facing a vote of confidence by secret ballot.

Those opposed to him staying in office include the Automobile Association of America (AAA), the world's largest motoring organisation with some 51 million members. Britain's most recent Formula One world champion Damon Hill, now president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, added his voice to the chorus of condemnation at the weekend. "None of us wants to be moralising about individuals but there has to be an element here to do with the image of the sport and the ability of the premier representative of the sport in the world to continue to engage with a politic concerned about values," he told the Sunday Times.

"It's a practical issue but it's also a marketing issue. "Businesses connected with the sport want a positive image and politicians want to engage with it because they know motorsport people support those values."