Google wants to avoid long EU probe: Schmidt

 LONDON, UK: Google Inc wants to avoid a lengthy legal battle with European Union regulators investigating its market dominance, the Sunday Telegraph quoted its chief executive as saying.

"We certainly want to avoid that," Eric Schmidt told the paper in an interview. "I think it is in our interests and I would hope in their interests to a do a quick analysis of concerns that have been raised by competitors, hopefully they are minor or they are not correct.

"We'll find out and make sure we are operating well within the law and the spirit of the law."

Brussels launched a formal investigation into Google in November following complaints from European rivals that it was abusing its dominant position in the market for web search services.

A previous EU investigation into software giant Microsoft snowballed into a 10-year legal battle in which the company paid 1.68 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in fines.EU