Brussels, June 3 (Reuters): The head of Mittal Steel was quoted on Saturday as saying he would not share takeover target Arcelor, which is trying to escape his 25-billion-euro ($32 billion) bid, by lining up a “white knight.”

The International Herald Tribune reported Lakshmi Mittal had dismissed the idea of taking a minority stake in Arcelor alongside Russian steel magnate Alexei Mordashov.

A combination of Mittal Steel and Arcelor ? the world’s first and second-biggest steelmakers ? was “a steel man’s dream” and anything else would be “a tragedy” for the industry, Mittal told the newspaper in an interview.

Mordashov last month agreed to a 13-billion-euro deal that will see him taking nearly a third of a combination of Arcelor with Severstal, the Russian steelmaker he controls.

Mittal Steel has previously said it would consider settling for less than 50 per cent of Arcelor. Despite the planned Russian deal, it has shown no let up in its determination to carry out the takeover. On Friday it turned up the pressure on Arcelor by handing over its business plans, something Arcelor had said was a pre-condition for any talks.

Mittal’s hopes for preventing the Arcelor-Severstal merger lie to a large degree with more than 50 per cent of Arcelor’s shareholders rebelling against it, a big challenge for the minority investors who are opposed to the Russian merger.