UK Football

MILAN, June 16 (Reuters) - Chelsea's England midfielder Frank Lampard is a transfer target for Serie A champions Inter Milan, club president Massimo Moratti said on Monday.

Lampard is one of several Chelsea players to have been linked with a move to the San Siro since the London club's former boss Jose Mourinho was appointed Inter coach earlier this month.

"You can say that Mourinho likes Lampard, who is a great player, a lot," Moratti was quoted as saying by Inter's Web site (www.inter.it) after talking with reporters in the resort town of Portofino. "But that does not mean it will be easy to get him."

Asked if Inter had approached Chelsea about the player, Moratti replied: "I think so, I don't know yet. Above all, what has been done up to now is a (transfer market) strategy with Mourinho."

Moratti seemed to reject media speculation that Inter would bid for Chelsea's Didier Drogba or Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o by saying that the Portuguese coach had not asked for a striker.

But he said that Barcelona playmaker Deco, who won the Champions League with Mourinho at Porto in 2004, was a potential target.

"Deco is one of the players with the characteristics that could be useful to our team," he said. "You either get him or another with the same characteristics."

Moratti said he had asked Mourinho not to stake everything on winning the Champions League.

"I consider the (Serie A) championship fundamental," he said. "You cannot abandon it to aim solely for the Champions League because it creates continuity problems in the squad."

Inter have not triumphed in the continent's premier club competition since winning the European Cup for the second successive time in 1965.