Google Inc. and Apple Inc. are partners on "many more" new projects yet to be disclosed, Google's CEO says.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco, Calif., Eric Schmidt said that the two companies are "doing more and more things together. We have similar goals, similar competitors," Marketwatch news service reported late Monday.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated Google Maps as a feature of the computer vendor's forthcoming iPhone cellphone at the Macworld exhibition in San Francisco in January.

Schmidt would not give details of the projects the companies are working on in his response to a question about rumours that they were working on a tablet-style computer.

Schmidt joined Apple's board of directors in August 2006.