NEWPORT County have increased their bid for Weymouth striker Lee Phillips. The Exiles had an offer of £15,000 turned down by the Wessex Stadium club, last month. The improved bid will go before Terras directors at board meeting tomorrow, but County manager Tim Harris is refusing to reveal the new figures. He told Echosport: "Lee did an excellent job for us on loan last season and I've made no secret of the fact that I want to sign another striker on a permanent basis, and Lee's the man I want. "I was obviously disappointed that Weymouth turned down my last offer, but he's definitely a player who I feel it's worth pushing the boat out for. "I spoke to Geoff Butler over the weekend and put a new figure to him and he's told me that he'll bring it up for discussion when Weymouth's board next meet on Wednesday. Hopefully it will be accepted this time, but I'll just have to wait and see what sort of response I get." Despite their well-documented cash-flow problems, Terras directors will be reluctant to part with their prized asset because of an obligation to Phillips' former club, Plymouth Argyle. The Cornishman has a clause in his contract giving the Pilgrims 45 per cent of any future transfer fee. Harris added: "I can understand why Weymouth don't want to lose him, but surely they've got to listen if their financial problems are as bad as they're made out to be. "The sell-on clause is something else for them to think about, but I'm sure that Plymouth would be happy to negotiate if someone were to get hold of them and talk about it." He added: "I know also that Geoff feels Newport County would be a bit of a sideways step for Lee and probably two or three years ago I would have agreed. "But everything is in place for us to start making real progress, like the financial backing and our new football academy, and I'm confident that we've now got a side good enough to challenge for major non-League honours. "I think Lee himself can see that Newport has the potential to really go places and I know he enjoyed his time with us last season. But this is not something I can allow to drag on for weeks and weeks and so I guess if things aren't sorted in 10 to 14 days then I'll have to start looking elsewhere." Phillips is one of seven contracted Terras players currently considering a pay cut.