THE Amateur Boxing Association have called on Amir Khan to be patient as they put together a tax-free £280,000 four-year deal.

Frustrated by an apparent lack of urgency by the ABA, Bolton's Olympic boxing silver medalist announced he would hold talks with promoters over a potential move into the professional ranks.

But Association development officer Paul King has said that Khan and his advisers should not rush into any decision.

"We are, and have all along, been due to meet Amir Khan's team tomorrow in Liverpool to discuss our offer," he said. "This offer was made informally by the ABA to Khan's team a fortnight ago and officials believe it met with a favourable response. The Government does not work as fast as a corner shop. To get meetings with sports ministers and their departments takes time.

"We realise the urgency, but we can't tie ourselves down to something that we can't deliver. We believe that in the next two weeks we will be in a position to deliver. Until then I hope they don't rush into any knee-jerk decisions.

"The lottery grant has already been agreed of around £25,000 per year; the ABA have for the first time decided to pay an education grant of £8,000 per year and there is the opportunity of a part-time schools development post. On top of that there is athletic support of £25,000 to cover travel, camps and the medicinal side. Add all that up and you get a £280,000 per year package over four years that is completely tax free.

"Amir's agents also have the opportunity to set up sponsorship deals and there are no restrictions on that.

"We have a deal with the BBC in the offing, which heavily features Amir, and the long-term notoriety he can achieve is phenomenal. More people saw Amir fight on the BBC at the Olympics than have seen all of Ricky Hatton's professional fights on Sky TV."

Khan's manager Asif Vali said: "If the ABA have not forwarded us a concrete offer by the end of the week we will have no choice but to begin speaking to everybody else out there. If I was in the ABA I would have been locked in discussions with Amir as soon as he arrived back in England.

Vali confirmed that Khan has received numerous offers to turn professional as well as projected sponsorship deals.

"We have a lot of deals on the table and we have been working with a lot of companies," Vali added. "Most of these deals depend upon whether Amir stays amateur or turns professional, so we need to finalise everything or risk losing some of those arrangements."

The boxer, along with the Athens gold medallists, will be meeting the Prime Minister next Tuesday.

Vali said: "We are there to support the London bid for the Olympic Games in 2012 and we will certainly be having a word in Tony Blair's ear about the situation."