Amidst increasing concern over the forthcoming Bahrain Grand Prix, the sport's governing body insists that it is monitoring events in the Gulf State.

Just two weeks before the event is due to take place, and on a day when there were further clashes between protestors and the security forces, the FIA insists that it is monitoring the situation closely.

"The FIA is constantly monitoring and evaluating the situation in the Kingdom of Bahrain," a spokesman told Reuters. "We are in daily touch with the highest authorities, the main European embassies and of course the local promoters at the Bahrain International Circuit as well as the international promoter.

"The FIA is the guarantor of the safety at the race event and relies, as it does in every other country, on the local authorities to guarantee security," added the FIA. In this respect we have been repeatedly assured by the highest authorities in Bahrain that all security matters are under control."

It is reported that today's protest saw more than 5,000 take to the streets of Manama, an already tense situation in the Gulf state further fuelled by the worsening condition of leading opposition figure, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, founder of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, who is in the eighth week of a hunger strike.