AC Milan have abandoned talks with Manchester City over the transfer of Carlos Tevez, BBC Sport understands.
It is thought the negotiations for the forward ended after the decision of Milan's Alexandre Pato to stay in Italy and not move to Paris Saint-Germain.
However, City hope a deal with Milan can be concluded for Tevez, 27, before the end of the January transfer window.
The development could reignite Inter Milan's interest in the former Manchester United man.
Inter president Massimo Moratti has previously conceded that he thought Tevez would join their rivals.
Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani had been holding talks with City and Tevez's agent Kia Joorabchian in London, before Pato's proposed £29m move to PSG broke down.
City are holding out for a permanent deal for Tevez, and are not willing to let the striker leave on loan.
Manager Roberto Mancini said on Tuesday he was confident Tevez would find a new club before the end of the January transfer window.
"I think maybe we can find a good solution in January, also because it is important for Carlos. Now it is three or four months that he hasn't played," he said.
"I know that there is Inter maybe that is interested because I read the newspapers, and [AC] Milan the same but I don't know the last news."
Tevez has not played for City since they beat Birmingham on 21 September.
Mancini alleged the Argentine refused to come off the substitutes' bench in September's Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich, while the player maintained there had been a misunderstanding.
An internal club investigation concluded that Tevez, who joined City in July 2009, was guilty of five breaches of his contract and he was fined four weeks' wages, reduced to two following intervention from the Professional Footballers' Association.