Newcastle star Obafemi Martins has revealed that he is ready to sign a new deal at St James' Park.

The Nigerian striker, who bagged 17 goals last season, has been strongly linked with a move to Arsenal.

However, Newcastle have rubbished suggestions that they wanted sell Martins to raise cash for other signings and have now opened talks over a new contract.

United are looking to tie down the 22-year-old to a new long-term deal, which would not include any release-clauses - like his current deal.

"We are talking, that is all I can say for now," said Martins. "Like I told you before, all I knew about the Arsenal thing was what I saw in the media.

"I am a Newcastle player and my part is to score goals for Newcastle and I am happy to be doing that."

Martins insists he is ready to compete with Michael Owen and Mark Viduka for a place in Newcastle's starting line-up.

"It's always good to score goals and for me, it is important to improve every season," added Martins. "I scored 17 goals last season so this season maybe I should be looking at doing better than that. Twenty goals is possible and I hope I can do that.

"Both Viduka and Owen are great players and it shows that the manager is serious about achieving something this season. But I want to play all the time and as long as I am scoring goals, I think I can make it hard for him not to play me.

"Even when I am not scoring, I can make myself a problem for the other team and allow my team-mates to score."