NEWCASTLE UNITED'S attempts to land Daniel van Buyten have suffered a setback after being warned to keep their hands off the defender by Hamburg.

Van Buyten admitted earlier this week that a move back to the Premiership and to Newcastle would appeal to him and suggested talks had already taken place.

But Hamburg chairman Bernd Hoffmann has come out fighting and has told the big Belgian to forget about a summer move away from the Bundesliga.

Newcastle are understood to be preparing a £5m move for van Buyten in a bid to bolster defensive ranks following the departure of Aaron Hughes to Aston Villa.

But Hoffmann - eager to strengthen rather than weaken his squad following the arrival of Dutch winger Rafael van der Vaart from Ajax - claims to be in no mood to listen to offers for the centre-back.

"Now it's really enough. I don't want to read all the time about which club he finds interesting, it doesn't help him and it doesn't help the club. He has a contract with us until 2008 - end of discussion," said Hoffmann.

Former Newcastle boss Sir Bobby Robson had tried to sign van Buyten from Marseille during his reign but a deal, worth more than £10m at the time, could not be agreed.

The 27-year-old, who was on loan at Manchester City two seasons ago, then made the move to Hamburg and now Souness has earmarked him as the perfect man to compete with Jean-Alain Boumsong, Titus Bramble, Andy O'Brien and Steven Taylor for a defensive place.

Unwanted Newcastle winger Laurent Robert, meanwhile, has reiterated his intention to stay in England rather than return to France.

Toulouse have already held talks with Robert's representative but are unlikely to be able to agree a fee with the Magpies, who are determined to recoup a chunk of the £10m they paid for him.

But even if a compromise can be reached Robert is keen to make sure he has explored all possibilities of staying in the Premiership.

Robert said: "My priority is England but we will see what Toulouse propose."

l The agent of Racing Santander star Yossi Benayoun has revealed that Newcastle are one of at least five English clubs on the trail of the Israeli international.

Ronen Katsav confirmed that Newcastle were one of the clubs monitoring the gifted midfielder, and added that he expected Benayoun to seal a move from Racing after Israel's game against Republic of Ireland tomorrow.

Newcastle plan to send a delegation to meet the player after the game at Lansdowne Road, but Katsav insists they will face severe competition for Benayoun's signature from a host of clubs both in England and Spain.

"Newcastle's assistant coach Dean Saunders saw him when they were at Blackburn," he said.

"They know him very well and saw him play well on several occasions. I think (Graeme) Souness also knows him very well.

"But we are not just talking about one club because we have such an agreement with Santander that he will leave this season.

"A lot of clubs in England are waiting to open negotiations for him, they will move quickly after the game on Saturday - I believe that after that everything will move quickly."

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