Speculation about the MotoGP star returning to the Welsh event - the final round in the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship, running from November 30 to December 2 - started to intensify last month and the Subaru World Rally Team confirmed to Crash.net then that they were in the 'early stages' of discussions with the Italian.

Rossi now says that a deal is '95 per cent' sorted, although with entries for the event closing on Friday October 26, any deal will need to be finalised soon.

"It is 95 per cent certain I will participate in Wales Rally GB. However we do not have the budget completely together yet," rallye-magazin.de reports Rossi as saying.

The seven times world champion also revealed that he wants the same brand of tyres he has criticised in MotoGP this season: "We would like to drive with Michelin tyres. We hope to do some tests beforehand too."

Rumours have long linked Valentino with rallying post-2009, when his current MotoGP deal with Yamaha expires. Fiat, which currently sponsors the factory Yamaha team, are also understood to be keen to get him to drive the Punto Super 2000.

However, Rossi has recently threatened to change teams after 2008, should his Yamaha not improve, suggesting that any full time four-wheel switch is still some way off.

"I know that Fiat wants to return to the WRC with the Punto S2000 turbo, but I am not part of that programme," Rossi stated in the same report.