GRAEME Souness has underlined his determination to sign Hakan Sukur on a permanent basis as he inspired Rovers to a stunning 4-0 victory against Fulham.

The former Inter Milan star scored twice - his first goals in a Blackburn shirt - as Rovers recorded their biggest away win in five years in the Premiership.

And Souness now plans to make the securing of Sukur's signature one of his top priorities this summer as he begins to formalise his plans for next season.

"I hope Hakan will be with us next year because I think he has just shown us what a good player he is," said Souness, as he reflected on last night's game.

"We've yet to sit down and talk about that because, to be fair to him, he hasn't played a lot of football this year and in the next six games I'm sure we'll see him improve with each game.

"But I've worked with him before and I want to sign him because I know what he's capable of and I'm a fan.

"I'd like to think we are in pole-position anyway because of the relationship I have with him.

"Obviously, he's very comfortable financially given the football he has played and where he has played it, so I don't think money is the most important thing in his life.

"He wants to feel wanted, like we all do at times, and he wants to be relaxed and happy at a football club and he feels that with us, because he likes it in England.

"If you look at his track-record, both in the Champions League and international football, that tells you what a good player he is and I was delighted to see him break his duck for us because he's been through a rough time in the last year or so."

As we revealed on Friday, Souness has already drawn up a list of five players he wants to sign this summer and Sukur is on it.

But as long as the 31-year-old continues to produce man-of-the-match performances like he did last night then Rovers could face competition for his signature.

Souness, meanwhile, was delighted with the result at Loftus Road as Rovers kept their European charge firmly on track.

With six games still to play, Rovers have now collected more Hakan Sukur and Graeme Souness embrace after the Turkish striker netted his first goal for Rovers at Loftus Road last night points than they did in the whole of last season and Souness is thrilled with his side's progress.

"Our aim at the start of the season was to get enough points to stay in the Premier League and once we got those we then wanted to finish higher than we did last year," said the Rovers boss.

"We've now got more points than we did last season and hopefully we can finish higher than tenth, but I don't want to start talking about Europe.

"We've got three tough home games left and three away so we'll see what they bring us, but we will try to win every one of them."

Sukur led last night's rout -- Rovers' fifth win in their last six Premiership outings -- with a couple of well-taken goals either side of half-time, while Damien Duff and David Dunn also helped themselves to a goal apiece.

But it was the men at the back who came in for special praise from the manager afterwards.

"I thought the back four who started the game will compete with anyone," said Souness.

"Craig Short and Henning Berg were both outstanding and Craig was a strong contender for man of the match but Hakan's goals obviously swung that one.

"But we now look like a solid back four and I wish we had had that at the start of the season.

"Vratty (Vratislav Gresko) is a proper defender and once he gets fully fit I also think we'll see more of him going forward."

Rovers reserves are in action at Sheffield Wednesday tonight at 7pm.