MADRID - BARCELONA has offered Samuel Eto'o a two-year contract extension at his current pay level, the player's agent Jose Maria Mesalles said on Tuesday.

Mesalles denied that Manchester City had made an offer for Eto'o.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta said over the weekend that Manchester City had made a 'stratospheric' offer to sign the player and make the Cameroon striker the highest-paid player in the world. His contract runs out at the end of next season.

'The 'stratospheric' offer the president spoke of is absolutely false because we have not yet sat down with the English club,' Mesalles told a news conference.

The agent said he had called the news conference to deny reports he said Barcelona was spreading 'to pressure the player to leave'. On Monday night Barcelona sent Eto'o a text message and an e-mail offering to extend his contract by two seasons, through June 2012, at his current pay level, Mesalles said.

Eto'o is happy with the team and the city and if the offer is sincere he will study it. 'But I fear that if they want to extend his contract, it is to be able to sell him later,' the agent said. -- AP