"All I want to do is go away on holiday, relax and refresh my mind and then I will come back and see what happens."

Bolton and Tottenham have also been linked with a move for the versatile 6ft 3ins defender who can play centre-back or left-back.

Distin started his career at French non-league side Joue-les- Tours and had spells at Tours and Gueugnon before he was snapped up by Paris St-Germain in 2000.

He spent the 2001/02 campaign on loan at Newcastle before making a £4million move to Manchester City.

His five-year stay at City yielded over 200 appearances but he left in the summer of 2007 after his contract expired.

Liverpool were interested in him two years ago but he made the switch to Portsmouth in order to get regular first team football.

Meanwhile, Cruzeiro forward Kleber has said that he does not want to answer any more questions about a possible move to Liverpool with his club insisting that they want to keep him.

When asked about the chances of him making a switch to Anfield the 25-year-old who has netted 19 times in 21 games, said: "I don’t want to talk about this anymore. It’s getting boring.

"If I play badly in a couple of days, the fans will start saying I want to quit."

"If I had an offer and if it’s profitable for both me and Cruzeiro, my agent (Giuseppe Dioguardi) and (club president) Zeze (Perrella) will try to sort it out."