FOUR times world champion Alain Prost has reached an agreement to take over Ligier and will run his own Formula One team in this year's world championship.

French manufacturer Peugeot, whose engines will be fitted in Prost's cars from next year, said yesterday that the deal would be made official at a news conference in Paris today.

Ligier refused to comment on a report in the sports daily L'Equipe which said Ligier would become Prost Grand Prix and contest the 1997 series with drivers Olivier Panis of France and Shinji Nakano of Japan.

Prost will rely on the new Ligier JS 45 cars powered by a Mugen-Honda engine this season. But from 1998 and for three years, his cars will be fitted with the Peugeot V10 engines currently used by the Jordan team, a Peugeot spokesman said.

Prost needed the agreement of all the existing teams to change the Ligier name but he had to wait until Wednesday to gain Jordan boss Eddie Jordan's signature,

Jordan was afraid he might lose his supply of Peugeot engines but was reassured when he learned that the deal reached by Prost would allow him to continue with Peugeot in 1997, a source close to Peugeot said.

"There are 130 working in the team now and obviously it is my duty to protect our position as much as possible," said Jordan. Prost had sought free engines from Peugeot but the French carmaker was firm that it's overall investment in Formula One would not increase in 1998 - in other words at least one team will pay for the V10s next year.