London - The agent of Liverpool winger Ryan Babel claimed on Tuesday that he had had a request to be loaned to another club turned down.

The 21-year-old has started just 17 Premier League games since making the move from Ajax in July 2007, and is keen on a loan back to the Netherlands so he can maintain his match fitness.

"Ryan finds that he sits on the bench too much at Liverpool, he wants to play more and asked me to see if Ajax were interested in a temporary return," his agent Winnie Haatrecht told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

"After we got an enthusiastic reaction from Ajax, we asked Liverpool for their co-operation but the club don't want to see him go.

"(Liverpool manager) Rafael Benitez finds Ryan too important. Hopefully we will see that in more playing time.

"Let's be clear: Ryan feels great at Liverpool, but for him to develop further he needs to get playing time." (dpa)