McCormack won his fourth Scotland cap in their midweek defeat in Norway

Phil Brown admits Hull City's interest in Ross McCormack is cooling as the two clubs' valuations of the Cardiff City striker are "a million miles" apart.

The Premier League club had an apparent £3.5m bid rejected by Cardiff for their 23-goal top scorer from last season.

It was thought Hull boss Brown was to return with an improved offer for the Scottish international, 22.

But Brown admits: "I'm not convinced they want to do business and, in that case, I'm not interested."

So it seems Brown has conceded defeat in his pursuit of McCormack, who is valued by Cardiff at about £5m after he signed a four-year deal at the Championship club last month.

The Scotland striker had made it clear to Cardiff chairman Peter Ridsdale that if a Premier League club bid for him, he would love the chance to play in the top flight.

Portsmouth informally enquired about McCormack last month but Hull's offer was the first concrete bid.

"We've made our stance, we've said what we want and Phil knows it," said Bluebirds boss Dave Jones.

"We don't want to do business with Hull City if they offer such ridiculous prices. We have a valuation and we are not in the game of pleasing other football clubs.

"The offer they made for Ross was ludicrous, we'd probably get the full amount in five years time!"

He added: "They want to do the deal with add-ons such as if they stay in the division and how many games he plays etc. So we're a million miles apart at the moment.

"What we've told them, unless they match our valuation they can go and look somewhere else.

It is another blow for Brown in his desperate pursuit to sign another striker for a Hull side that is among the favourites for Premier League relegation this season.

The KC Stadium club have failed to sign forwards Fraizer Campbell, who joined Sunderland, Marc-Antoine Fortune, who signed for Celtic, and Michael Owen, who linked up with Manchester United.

And Hull also withdrew from talks with Sunderland striker Daryl Murphy after failing to agree personal terms.

We've made our stance, we've said what we want and Phil Brown (pictured) knows it Cardiff City boss Dave Jones

Hull were also linked with McCormack's Cardiff City team-mate and Wales captain Joe Ledley but may end their interest after signing Republic of Ireland midfielder Stephen Hunt from Reading.

McCormack, who signed for Cardiff from Motherwell for a cut-price £110,000 in the summer of 2008, requested the chance to talk to interested Premier League parties after being told he will not be guaranteed a place up-front for the Bluebirds.

He has been played out wide by Jones who has favoured a strike force of Michael Chopra and Jay Bothroyd.

But Jones, who has already lost key defender Roger Johnson to Premier League Birmingham City for £5m this summer, praised the influential Scotsman's performance in their resounding victory over Scunthorpe United last Saturday.

McCormack had a hand in three of Cardiff's four goals in the Championship opening day 4-0 win.

Jones admits: "If Hull saw him on Saturday - and they probably had scouts there - they would have been impressed.

"If it was up to me I would have told my chairman to double the price because he was worth every penny we are asking for."

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