AS Roma captain, Francesco Totti says he will sign a new five-year contract to stay with the Serie A club and is not ruling out a return to Italy's national team after recovering from a knee injury.

Roma's captain has spent his entire career with his hometown Serie A club, which finished sixth in the league last season. A huge favourite with the fans, he is Roma's all-time top scorer with 178 goals.

Totti told reporters yesterday that he will sign a contract that runs until 2014 when he returns from a preseason training camp in northern Italy.

Asked about a possible international return if he was contacted by Italy's 2006 World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi, he said: "We'd eval-uate that together. Let's see how I am during the year. The physical problems have passed, my knee is OK and the aim is to play as much as possible."

The club has had financial problems and has been considering buyout offers for several years.

Totti said as far as he knew "nobody had made a real offer" for Roma.