McRae rejects Skoda deal.

1995 World Rally champion, Colin McRae has decided he will not join Skoda in 2005.

McRae told British newspaper The Guardian, that though his 'proposed salary had not met expectations', a 'range of factors had influenced his decision'.

"There is not a reasonable offer there," he told the broadsheet.

"The whole package wasn't what it needed to be. I'd say that is an end of it."

McRae was rumoured to be due to join the team and take part in around eight of the 16 events, while his prot?g?, Kris Meeke, took part in the other events, as part of the deal.

The Scot, who was forced to sit out this year's FIA World Rally Championship, after being dropped by Citroen, and later rejected by Subaru, is now said to be concentrating his efforts on the Dakar Rally 2005, which he will contest for the second time, driving with Nissan, who he made his debut with back in January.

The Scot, who tested the Skoda Fabia WRC a month ago, now looks set to miss the 2005 WRC.

"I would be interested in a nice, clean programme," he added, "but at the moment that's not looking easy."

Options though do remain, and all the doors are by no means closed. Only Citroen have confirmed there line-up for 2005, with Sebastien Loeb continuing at the team alongside ex-Ford driver, Francois Duval.

Markko Martin meanwhile is rumoured to be on his way to Peugeot, while Harri Rovanpera is said to be close to a deal with Mitsubishi, who have thus far, only confirmed Gilles Panizzi for 2005. Seats then do remain at Ford, Subaru and even Peugeot, should Marcus Gronholm decide he wants to move on, something that WRC insiders predict is possible.

All of this means then that if McRae was willing to accept a reasonable salary, who could find himself back in consideration.

A number of other drivers though are also pitching for the remaining seats, including amongst others, Mikko Hirvonen, who is said to be out of favour at Subaru, Freddy Loix, Toni Gardemeister, Daniel Sola, Kristian Sohlberg, Gigi Galli and Brits Guy Wilks and Meeke.

McRae's manager, Campbell Roy told BBC Sport Online: "Colin will do Paris-Dakar again and we are still in talks with various people about his future plans. Nothing - including a return to the WRC with another team - has been ruled out but there is no firm news to report at the minute."

"What was on offer [at Skoda] did not really match up with Colin's aspirations," he added. "If he was to return then he'd want a car that was up there challenging for the podium and there were a few issues in that respect.

"Discussions were taking place on a broad level, but we felt it best not to go any further down that particular road."