Any deal would have to be approved by Garber, but he said today that he wants an agreement in place by the end of the week if it is to go ahead.

"There is no reason why this should drag on," Garber said. "They (AC Milan) either want to do it or don't want to do it.

"This Friday we need to know if they want to buy David Beckham or not."

Beckham joined Milan on loan at the beginning of January, saying he wanted to keep up his match fitness to remain in the England squad.

The deal is due to expire on March 8, but Beckham and Milan have made clear that they now want to make the switch permanent.

Garber, however, insisted MLS would not be made to wait as the start of the American season nears.

"What they need to realise is that we are getting very close to the start of our season," he said. "We have to figure out what plans we need to make and if David Beckham is going to be a part of those plans."

The Galaxy's season begins against DC United on March 22.

Beckham, who signed a five-year contract with the Galaxy in January 2007, has impressed during his month in Italy, scoring twice and earning a place in the Rossoneri's UEFA Cup squad.

He announced last week after a friendly in Glasgow that he wanted to make the move permanent.

While Beckham's desire to leave MLS less than 18 months after making his debut for Los Angeles comes as a major blow to the league's image, Garber refused to criticise the former England captain.

"I don't know that it's a betrayal," he said. "We made a decision to loan David to Milan because we believed it was in his best interest to stay in shape during a long off-season.

"We have a lot of respect for what David's done to help the league and we wanted to accommodate his request and we believed we were gentlemen in doing that.

"I don't regret it at all. I think we did the right thing for our relationship with David. I don't know that anybody expected him to play the way he is playing.

"If the loan provided him the opportunity to resurrect or re-energise his playing career, then that's a positive for David Beckham."

Garber added that he believes playing in MLS has benefited Beckham.

"When David came over, we had no shortage of media people saying that we had a player coming to the league at the end of his career," he said.

"Certainly, David is performing extremely well with AC Milan and he has been playing in MLS for two years.

"So certainly MLS has helped his career as opposed to taking away from it. I think that's a positive story."

Milan have already floated one offer for Beckham, but the club's owners, AEG, said the offer did not meet their valuation.

Garber said today that no formal offer had been made.

Garber did confirm that Beckham has a get-out clause in his contract that he can exercise after the 2009 season.