The club sold the Elland Road stadium in November 2004

The club had approached the council for a loan to help bid for the stadium and its Thorp Arch training ground.

However, the council has said the request was "unacceptable" and will not get into further talks with the club.

Leeds United, which sold both sites to Manchester businessman Jacob Adler, holds a buy-back option of about �13m on the stadium and �5m on Thorp Arch.

Adler later sold Elland Road to Teak Commercial Ltd, a company based in the British Virgin Islands, who are currently charging the club �1.15m in rent every year.

'Financial stability'

Leeds United chairman Ken Bates has previously said he wants to buy back the two sites.

Club chief executive Shaun Harvey released a statement confirming he had approached the city council to help them with the purchases, which he said would give them "financial stability".

The statement said: "The council is able to borrow money and with the club repaying them there would be no cost to either the council or the taxpayers.

"If the club owned the stadium then there would no longer be any mystery as to who owns Elland Road and it would enable us to play a full part in the redevelopment of the Elland Road area and create income streams to support the club on days other than match days."

No talks

However, a spokeswoman for the city council said they were not prepared to take the matter any further.

She said: "It is correct that we have been contacted by Leeds United Football Club with a set of proposals. We have responded to them indicating that those proposals are not acceptable.

"We can confirm that no talks are currently taking place with Leeds United."