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PARIS, Dec 2, 2008 (AFP) - America’s seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong will above all be seeking to raise the profile of his anti-cancer foundation when he returns for a tilt at an unprecedented eighth title next summer, organisers said on Tuesday.

Armstrong’s Astana team had announced Monday that the 37-year-old Texan would race the Tour, having originally implied his focus would be on a maiden Tour of Italy instead.

In returning to the Tour, which having beaten testicular cancer he won seven times in a row before his 2005 retirement, Armstrong will compete in the same team as current cycling number one Alberto Contador, who is the reigning Tour de France champion.

Tour organisers confirmed Tuesday they had had talks with the American regarding his return to the race.

“We recently had the opportunity to talk with him,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme told AFP, adding that they had met at a Paris airport along with Jean-Etienne Amaury et Yann Le Moenner, leading figures in ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation), which runs the event.

“He told us of his wish to compete in the Tour and that if he did come back it would be above all for the sake of his foundation, ” Prudhomme said.

Armstrong has previously alluded to security concerns regarding the race but Prudhomme said he had not made any particular request in that vein regarding next summer.

“Cycling in general, and the Tour de France in particular, are incontestably close (to the public). Of course this accessibility has to remain. For us, the aspect of a popular fete comprises an integral part of the Tour,” Prudhomme stressed.

Armstrong, 37, is set to make his pro comeback in next month’s Tour Down Under in Australia.