Google has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its cell phone project and is courting US and European mobile operators, a report said.

Anian, a Reuters company that tracks industry trends for institutional investors, reported last month that Google had engaged Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp to design a Linux software-based phone for launch in the first quarter of 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Anian report cited industry sources as saying T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom, would likely be Google's US partner with France Telecom's Orange selling the phones in other markets.

The Journal said Google had also approached the two biggest US wireless services, AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless, in recent months to ask them to sell phones with Google service.

It cited a Verizon Wireless executive saying the company had decided not to integrate Google's Web search tightly into its phones because of Google's advertising revenue-sharing demands. The newspaper said the executive had not commented on a Google phone.

A person familiar with the situation told Reuters that talks between Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, and Google have ended without resulting in an agreement.