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Googleon Thursday offered to give internet rivals, including Amazon, access to its massive database of digital books, as it renewed efforts to counter a wave of opposition stirred up by its landmark legal settlement with the publishing industry.

However, the gesture was immediately rebuffed by a lawyer representing opponents of the deal.

The offer, made during a US congressional hearing into the legal settlement, comes a week before the US government is due to issue its initial views on whether Google (NASDAQ: GOOG - news) stands to gain too much power from the scanning of millions of books held in university libraries.

The Department of Justice has until next Friday to file its comments with the federal court in Manhattan that is weighing whether to approve the settlement.

Critics, including internet rivals Amazon, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - news) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO - news) have objected to the exclusive rights that the search company would have to sell access to digital copies in its database of "orphan works", or out-of-print books still in copyright for which the rights holders cannot be traced.

Though Google maintains this will only ever amount to a tiny part of the digital books market, rivals claim it would help to cement the company's wider influence.

Also, they complain that only Google would be guaranteed a deal with a new book industry registry that would administer digital rights on behalf of authors and publishers, giving it a clear advantage.

In an effort to counter those objections, Google said on Thursday it would let other online retailers tap into the database of out-of-print digital books that it would host in its data centres. Companies would be able to resell online access to the works, it said, and keep "more than half" of the proceeds from any sale, after deducting the 67 per cent share paid first to authors and publishers.

The proposal was rejected by Gary Reback, an antitrust lawyer in Silicon Valley who is representing a coalition of opponents to the deal. "Other retailers will sell them, but Google will set the price at retail, so nothing changes," he said. "They still retain control, that's the objectionable part - it would just extend their monopoly."

Google's offer follows an attempt over the weekendto silence critics in the European book world by giving them a say in the new digital registry.