The manager of Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan, is claiming that the 28-year-old has a contract to drive for Jordan in 2005.

"Narain has been offered a drive by Jordan as their number one," Sanjay Sharma has told Reuters. "And he has accepted."

Previously, Karthikeyan has tested for Jordan and Jaguar and Minardi, becoming the first Indian to drive an F1 car.

Prior to today's news, Jordan, which was bought out last week by Russian billionaire Alex Shnaider, was the only team not to have filled either of its seats for the 2005, which gets underway in just over four weeks.

Since the buy-out, the team has expressed an interest in a number of drivers including BAR tester Anthony Davidson.

With the Englishman unavailable, interest appears to have focussed on Karthikeyan, with the decision heavily influenced by Trevor Carlin, who ran in the Indian in British F3 and is now employed as sporting director with Midland F1, ostensibly the team behind the Jordan buy-out.

If Karthikeyan has been signed as number one driver it marks a bold decision, especially in view of his limited F1 experience.

It's understood that a press conference will be held later today (Tuesday), in Bombay.