HTC is planning yet another Android-based smartphone with a sliding QWERTY keyboard only months after the release of the HTC Desire Z.

US mobile phone carrier, Verizon, leaked pictures of the handset alongside with a 360 degrees virtual tour of the smartphone confirming its rumoured existence.

It was set to be released on the 23rd of November and we're not sure whether this incident will cause its launch to be brought forward. No news yet about pricing or whether it will be available outside the US.

Apart from the fact that it has a 3.7-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen complete with Android OS 2.2, a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC running at 800MHz, HD recording, 368MB RAM and a five megapixek camera, we can only guess what the other details could be.

Strangely though, the HTC Merge looks a lot like the HTC Desire Z (or indeed the Motorola Milestone 2), which leads us to think that the Merge could be a HTC Desire Z with a twist.