Melandri to join Kawasaki next year

The Italian has had a miserable year on the factory Ducati and confirmed last month that he would be leaving the Italian manufacturer at the end of the season.

The former 250cc champion, who still hopes to contest the remaining six races of this year with Ducati, says he picked Kawasaki as the best of the options he had available to him.

"I hope to get good results in the last six races of 2008, and after that I am moving to another team," he told MotoGP.com. "I will ride for Kawasaki next year, so it's a big change for me.

"(John) Hopkins is a very good rider and maybe he needs a stronger teammate to be a little bit more motivated. Maybe I also need this kind of company to be motivated a little bit more, because I really want to work closely together with a teammate. It will be a good experience and I am quite confident."

Melandri had been linked with a possible return to the Gresini Honda team who he left for Ducati at the end of 2007.

"It would have been a nice option to go back to Fausto (Gresini), I had a very good time with him and he has always helped me a lot," Melandri added.

"This year we've been talking together, but for me, I've been looking at Kawasaki and they seem very good. The engineers and people there give me a good feeling just to talk to them, so that's what I want to do."