And a capacity line-up for the Armagh-based event will also include former two-time Irish Tarmac champion Andrew Nesbitt, the 2002 winner.

Mikkelsen, just turned 19, has appeared on a number of Irish internationals this year as he builds towards a full-time World championship career.

He was 12th on the most recent round, Rally Finland, and will be action again this weekend at Rally Germany, before heading for Northern Ireland.

He was third on the Easter International (Circuit of Ireland) and third again on the Rally of the Lakes in Killarney earlier in the year and was impressive on the Rally Isle of Man where he challenged Eugene Donnelly for the lead before an accident dropped him back.

Now he returns to make his first appearance o the Ulster International on August 31/September 1 when Donnelly will be bidding for a third successive victory.

The triple Tarmac champion heads a line-up which for the first time is over-subscribed and sees Nesbitt make just his second appearance of the season. He is expected to drive the McKinstry Motorsport Subaru S11 in which he retired after just three stages of the Donegal International in June.

Eamonn Boland, Kevin Lynch, Tim McNulty and Denis Biggerstaff are all included in a starting list that will see the top Tarmac contenders joined by the leading lights from the British championship, among them Mark and David Higgins, Guy Wilks and Gwyndaf Evans.

Mark Higgins, the reigning British champion, is also challenging Donnelly for the Tarmac title and will make a decision later this week on whether to drive a production Subaru, in order to qualify for British points, or a more powerful WRC Subaru in an effort to overhaul Donnelly at the top of the Tarmac table.

This year the rally is also part of the UK Mitsubishi Evo Challenge which carries with it the lucrative prize of a works drive in the British series next season.

The Challenge is currently being headed by Lisburn's Phillip Morrow and he will be on home ground as he takes on his main rivals including Sebastien Ling, Julian Reynolds and Nik Elsmore.

The Ulster International, again sponsored by Philip White Tyres and based at the Armagh City Hotel, will also feature its first Japanese driver, Kazutomo Kusama, who has moved to the UK to develop his rally career. He will drive a Citroen C2R2, one of four of the little French cars in the line-up.

Another of them will be driven by ? Dessie McCartney, who won the rally in a Vauxhall Chevette HSR 27 years ago.