Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook said he would like to see more of the company's products assembled at home than in China and contain more US components such as semiconductors, Reuters reports.  

Apple has been criticized for relying on low-cost Asian manufacturers to assemble its products and for contributing to the decline of the US manufacturing sector.

Cook, who took the helm of the world's most valuable technology company in August shortly before founder Steve Jobs died, said manufacturing in the United States was difficult because of declining tool and die manufacturing expertise, among other things, but he was working on it.

"There are things that can be done in the US, not just for the US market but that can be exported for the world," Cook told this year's All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering of A-list technology and media executives in the upscale California coastal resort town of Rancho Palos Verdes.

"On the assembly piece, could that be done in the US? I hope so, again, one day," he added.