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Sebastien Loeb has revealed he intended to return to the World Rally Championship in 2016 before Citroen "closed the door".

Prior to being dropped by the marque with which he won his nine WRC titles, Loeb was looking at a third and final World Touring Car Championship season with the chance of some parallel development work readying Citroen's all-new C3 WRC for 2017.

He also wanted to contest some WRC rallies with the team, but now his sole confirmed programme is his Peugeot Dakar Rally deal.

ANALYSIS: Why is Loeb doing the Dakar?

"Monte would have been difficult with Dakar," Loeb told Autosport.

"Now, it's easy to say I would have done some [WRC] events; we didn't have the opportunity to talk about the possibilities, the decision came quite late.

"If they asked me, I would have done one or two rallies [in 2016]."

Loeb believes his switch to a full Peugeot contract means returning to PSA sister brand Citroen would now be tricky.

"Now I am full time with Peugeot, it would be complicated to go back to do something with Citroen," he said.

"I don't think something is possible with the rally car.

"They could have had a good opportunity to take me, but they closed the door.

"I wouldn't do the full season again, but we could have done some development and some rallies."