Rumours continue to grow about a new handset from Palm that will showcase its long-awaited Nova platform, both of which are expected to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas later this week.

Palm has been developing a successor to its venerable Palm OS platform for a couple of years. Nova is expected to be based on a Linux core and may have some backwards compatibility with older Palm applications.

But the company has been keeping its cards close to its chest, and has declined to disclose any details prior to CES.

Meanwhile, several sources have claimed that Palm will also introduce a new handset at the show based on Nova. Like the firm's Treo line, this is said to have a Qwerty keypad for email and messaging, but one that slides out from behind a touch-sensitive display.

Current Palm devices have a fixed keyboard below the screen, and run either Palm OS Garnet or Microsoft's Windows Mobile.

The move is being seen by many observers as a last chance for Palm to claim back some of the market share it has lost to competitors in the smartphone market over the past few years.

While the Treo line has been fairly successful in the US, sales have been hit by newer and more glamorous rivals such as Apple's iPhone.