Google has introduced a new version of its Gmail client for mobile phones, making the application more responsive and providing offline support in case the user moves out of mobile coverage.

Gmail for Mobile 2.0 (available at m.google.com/mail) runs on handsets supporting Java J2ME, which includes BlackBerry devices, giving mobile access to Gmail accounts for users with a wider variety of handsets.

Google said in its mobile blog that it has improved performance by pushing all processing into the background, improving caching and addressing bottlenecks in the client code.

Basic offline support means that users can now compose and read their most recent emails even when they cannot get a mobile network signal.

Any outgoing messages are saved in the Gmail outbox on the phone and delivered when a connection is re-established, according to Google.