MANCHESTER UNITED issued Leeds with an ultimatum last night: Take Rio Ferdinand to the Far East and the transfer is dead.

Sir Alex Ferguson will abandon his protracted pursuit of Ferdinand, 23, if the defender flies to China with his Leeds teammates today.

Ferguson has grown increasingly angry with United's failure to capture Ferdinand after a £30m bid for the England international was rejected yesterday.

With Leeds not due back until the end of July, the United manager will try to sign Lazio centre-back Alessandro Nesta if Ferdinand jets off from Leeds-Bradford Airport this morning.

The deadline for the registration of players for the Champions League third qualifying round is August 8 - barely a week after Leeds return from Australia.

And Ferguson will focus on other targets, including Juventus' French defender Lilian Thuram as well as Nesta, if Ferdinand goes on the Leeds trip.

United and Leeds were unable to thrash out an agreement despite being locked in talks throughout yesterday.

But Ferdinand's advisers were understood to be unhappy with Leeds' refusal to accept the £30m bid, given the global fall in transfer fees this summer.

Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale said: "I have had one conversation with Manchester United today but it did not move the situation on any further.

"We have still to receive a bid of a level that we would find acceptable."

United's £30m offer was understood to have included a number of staggered payments, which dissuaded Leeds from agreeing to let Ferdinand leave for that price.

They are desperate to reduce their £77m debt, not least because they want to provide new manager Terry Venables with a substantial transfer war chest to rebuild their team, given the impending departures of Ferdinand, Lee Bowyer and Olivier Dacourt.

If Ferdinand does eventually join United, he will become Britain's most expensive player - usurping Juan Sebastian Veron, who cost the Old Trafford club £28.1m last July.

Ferdinand returned to pre-season training on Thursday after his World Cup exploits and immediately told Ridsdale he remained determined to leave.

But Ridsdale, aware of the backlash from Leeds fans that would accompany Ferdinand's departure to their fiercest rivals, is trying to extract as much money as possible from United in exchange for his prize asset.

Leeds' summer sale will begin in earnest on Monday, when Bowyer is expected to complete his £9m move to Liverpool.

The hold-up in Bowyer's switch to Anfield is understood to have been down to a delay in the controversial midfielder's failure to agree the financial terms of his departure from Leeds.

Ridsdale said: "I'm hoping it's going to be completed over the weekend with a view to signing on Monday.

"As far as we're concerned, the deal is done between the two clubs.

"We've given him a passport out of Leeds and wished him well."

If the deal is finalised, Bowyer will join up with his new teammates at Liverpool's pre-season training camp in Switzerland.