Lassana Diarra has vowed to show his total commitment to Portsmouth and shoot down accusations he is only using the south coast club as a stepping-stone back to the big time after failing to make the Premier League grade with Chelsea and Arsenal.

But the 22 year old, who has played in nine of France's last ten full internationals and aims to be in their Euro 2008 squad, has rubbished suggestions his stay at Pompey will only be until another major club appears on his horizon.

He said: "I want to be here and I have come here to focus on my football. Of course, I want to keep my place in the French national team but that will be no problem if I play here and do well.

"This is a really good team with some really good players - and it will be even better when four of them come back from the African Nations Cup.

"I have watched Pompey and I believe we can qualify for Europe with the players we have here. I just want to play and win.

"It was difficult to leave a great club like Arsenal and I never had a problem with Arsene Wenger. I still wish them good luck and I still think they could win the Premier League, but I have to focus on my own career and the only way to do that is by playing and playing well.

"I am only 22 and many things can change in football but I don't want to talk about Arsenal or Chelsea or even Manchester United. I am with Portsmouth now and very happy to be here. The manager here wants me and that is very important when you join a new club.

"I have trained just one day with the team and have not played for four weeks but you will see how much this move means to me when I play against Derby."