A report describes the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice in talks over which should handle an antitrust inquiry into Apple's rules for third-party developers.

According to a NY Post report, antitrust authorities at the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice are in talks about which agency should handle an inquiry into Apple's move to limit developers to its own programming platform.

Apple implemented to its software development kit (SDK) last month, barring developers from creating apps outside of Apple's programming environment.

Regulators could be concerned whether Apple is using its surging market power to confine third-party developers to creating apps only for Apple products.

Earlier this month, Adobe announced that it would stop the development of a Flash-to-iPhone software tool introduced with its Creative Suite 5, blaming Apple for restricting applications built with other technologiess such as the Unity, Titanium, the MonoTouch and Adobe's Flash CS5.

Apple CEO CEO Steve Jobs responded last week with an essay published at Apple's web site. Jobs attacked Adobe' s flash technology saying that it has not been not been optimized for use in mobile devices.

Adobe executives angered by Job's statement and the company's CEO Alan Murray defended Flash in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last Thusday.