Aston Villa manager David O'Leary is stepping up his bid to further strengthen his squad after completing the £3m signing of AC Milan central defender Martin Laursen.
O'Leary is understood to be targeting a £2m swoop for Norwegian winger Morten Gamst Pedersen, who is also being tracked by Newcastle.
Villa watched the 22-year-old, also being linked with Manchester United and Blackburn, in action for Tromso against Molde on Thursday night.
Pedersen has just broken into his national side, helping Norway to a 4-1 win over Northern Ireland in Februar, and has been recommended by Villa's chief scout Ian Broomfield.
O'Leary has spent around half of his summer budget on Laursen and has spelt out the need to bring in at least four players to bolster one of the smallest squads in the Barclaycard Premiership.
He has halved the club's wage bill since replacing Graham Taylor in the Villa hotseat 12 months ago, with 14 players having departed.
PSV Eindhoven midfielder Marc Van Bommel remains a target for O'Leary, who is also investigating the possibility of signing Chelsea defender Robert Huth on a season-long loan.
With the departure of both Ronny Johnsen and the versatile Dion Dublin, O'Leary currently only has skipper Olof Mellberg, rookie Liam Ridgewell and newcomer Laursen to fill the centre-back roles.
But O'Leary is adamant he will not be looking to Euro 2004 as an avenue to strengthen his squad and has already presented chairman Doug Ellis with his hit-list.
He said: "I don't watch players at international tournaments. I know the players I want and I've given the list to the club. Now let the club go and get them.
"The danger of signing players on the evidence of what they have done at tournaments is that they might have the best three weeks of their lives and never be able to repeat that form. I'd like to keep an eye on my targets to see what they can do over a period of time - like I did with Gavin McCann and Thomas Sørensen before we signed them from Sunderland."
Laursen, who has won 33 caps for Denmark, cost £8.7m when he was transferred from Parma to AC Milan in January 2002.
But the 26-year-old has become increasingly frustrated this season as he has been kept out of the side by the likes of Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta.
Everton, Middlesbrough and Charlton were also keeping tabs on Laursen but he has opted to sign a four-year deal with Villa and will link up with them after Euro 2004. O'Leary is aware of the need for Villa to invest heavily this summer if they are to have a realistic chance of building on their sixth-place Premiership finish.
He said: "We are in that pack of nine clubs now in the middle part of the Premiership and all of those teams are going to invest a great deal this summer - and they already have far bigger squads than we have.
"It could easily happen that we are a one season wonder.
"That's why you need to invest and I've said that we need four quality players in an ideal world."
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