Chinese search engine Baidu Inc said yesterday that it has signed a partnership with China Unicom to provide wireless search for the carrier's 3G mobile subscribers, in a move to fend off Google Inc's increasing presence in the world's largest mobile population.

Baidu will preinstall its services, including text, image, MP3 and news search, in China Unicom's 3G mobile phones, according to the agreement. It will also provide search services for mobile Internet websites run by the carrier, which plans to launch the iPhone in China this month.

"We hope that Baidu's cooperation with major telecom providers in China will accelerate the development of 3G services and allow us to provide the rapidly growing population of mobile search users better access to information," said Ren Xuyang, Baidu's vice-president, in a statement yesterday.