Portugal's Tiago Monteiro will drive for the Midland Formula One team next year, newspapers reported on Friday.

"My participation is assured with Midland F1 in the next world championship. I got here from England [Images] with the best news, the confirmation," A Bola newspaper quoted him saying at a sports banquet on Thursday.

He also told Record newspaper that he had signed.

Midland would not confirm the reports, however: "There will be a press release when we have something to announce," said a spokeswoman.

Monteiro, 29, raced for Jordan this year and finished third in the U.S. Grand Prix that was reduced to a six-car fiasco after the Michelin-equipped teams withdrew for tyre safety reasons.

The Midland name replaces Jordan on Tuesday after that British-based team was bought by Russian-born Canadian billionaire Alex Shnaider in January.

Toyota-powered Midland have already signed Dutchman Christijan Albers as one of their two race drivers with compatriot Nicky Pastorelli as official tester.

Indian Narain Karthikeyan [Images], who drove for Jordan this year, said on Wednesday that he is very unlikely to race for Midland because it would be hard to raise enough money to secure the seat and the car was not very competitive.

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