Google today called on the US government to allow greater numbers of migrant workers into the country as part of a wider push by the company into the area of politics.

The ability to attract highly skilled migrants into the technology industry was one of a number of issues, including privacy, child online safety and copyright protection, that were "fundamental to the future of the internet", the search company said, adding that it planned to take a greater role in influencing public policy in these and other areas.

The remarks came as Google gave details of a new public blog which it said would "serve as a resource for policy-makers around the world - including ministers, governors and regulators - trying to enact sound government policies."

"Issues such as content regulation, reform of the patent system, and broadband policy are increasingly prominent on the agendas of policymakers worldwide," Andrew McLaughlin, director of public policy at Google, said.

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"We're seeking to do public policy advocacy in a Googley way. Yes, we're a multinational corporation that argues for our positions before officials, legislators, and opinion leaders. At the same time, we want our users to be part of the effort, to know what we're saying and why."

One area of concern for the company was the "artifically low cap" on the number of visas allowing skilled migrants to work in the US on a temporary basis, a situation which had forced Google to turn down more than 70 overseas applicants, it said.

"Due to the annual cap of 65,000 H-1B visas, Google is regularly unable to pursue highly qualified candidates," Pablo Chavez, policy counsel at Google, said in a post, adding that the company had last month testified before a US parliamentary committee, urging that the cap be increased.

Other policy areas targeted by the blog include 'net neutrality', or the concern held by some content providers that broadband suppliers may be able to restrict the amount of bandwidth available to them, and laws passed by some US states which ban what is known as 'comparative advertising' - the use by companies of rival trademarks in their ads.

Several US politicians, including Hillary Clinton, have accepted invitations to address Google at its famed 'Googleplex', the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California. Last week the company announced that YouTube, the video-sharing site that it bought last year, will co-host one of the presidential debates with CNN.

Other decisions by Google which have touched on areas of public policy have been less well-received.

The company has attracted much criticism for agreeing to censor the search results available to Chinese users at the behest of the government in Beijing. Last week, following concerns from privacy campaigners, it announced it would cut the amount of time for which it holds information about users' search histories from two years to 18 months.

There have also been calls for UK regulators to investivate Google's "huge commercial power" in the online advertising market, following its acqusition of DoubleClick, the largest broker of online banner advertising, for $3.1 billion.

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