BLACKBURN Rovers are poised to make Norwegian winger Morten Pedersen their first signing of the summer.

Rovers are currently in discussions with Pedersen's club, Tromso, about a move for the 22-year-old wide-man.

And if talks go to plan then Rovers are hoping to thrash out a £1.5 million deal for the player in the next few days.

Manchester United, Newcastle and Aston Villa are also thought to be keen on Pedersen, who recently broke into the Norwegian national squad.

But Rovers have seized an early march on their Premiership rivals by starting negotiations for the highly-rated left-sided midfielder.

"We've not made a written offer as yet but we are in discussions with his club," said Rovers' chief executive, John Williams, who also revealed that Dwight Yorke could be leaving Ewood.

We first broke news of Rovers' interest in Pedersen three weeks ago and manager Graeme Souness has since flown out to Norway on two further occasions to watch him in person.

Souness will only have limited funds to spend in the transfer market this summer but he has made the recruitment of a left-sided player his top priority and Pedersen has now emerged as his preferred target, ahead of Rangers' Peter Lovenkrands.

Villa and Newcastle were also thought to have sent representatives to watch Tromso's game with Molde last night but Tromso boss Mathias Hogmo has played down reports suggesting Manchester United are also in for Predersen.

"We haven't heard about that. No-one from Manchester United has requested anything from us," he confirmed.

In the meantime, Rovers striker Dwight Yorke is now officially available for transfer after his representatives met Williams for talks earlier this week.

Rovers will listen to offers for the 32-year-old, who appears to have played his last game for the club. "I met Dwight's agent and we agreed that Dwight can leave the club if an offer comes in but until then he's still a Blackburn player," said Williams. "We are prepared to listen to offers and we won't be unreasonable because we don't want to stand in his way."

As I understand it, two English clubs are thought to be interested in taking the former Manchester United striker but Yorke has told friends that he could be heading for Qatar.

Rovers would allow him to move abroad for free but they would look for a small fee if he decided to join another club in England.

Meanwhile, Rovers have not received any firm offers for Andy Todd.