Buenos Aires: Argentina will host Formula One races in 2013, 2014 and 2015, President Cristina Fernandez has announced.

The city of Mar del Plata, 400 km south of Buenos Aires, will host the F1 races "between the end of November and the beginning of December" in the following three years, said Fernandez.

The announcement was made during an event in Casa Rosada, seat of presidency, where Fernandez met with the Dakar Rally's Argentine competitors.

"For us, this will be very important because after soccer, auto racing is the Argentina's second preferred sport," Fernandez was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

The Argentine president said that bringing F1 back to Argentina "is an accomplishment Argentina deserves, so we can show the world what we have".

Argentina Grand Prix was hosted by the South American country in an intermittent way from 1953 to 1998. Due to the organisers financial problems, the Grand Prix was suspended after 1998.

IANS