A woman speaks on the phone. The main telecom operator in the United Arab Emirates, Etisalat, announced on Monday that normal Internet access had been restored after repairs to undersea cables.

The main telecom operator in the United Arab Emirates, Etisalat, announced on Monday that normal Internet access had been restored after repairs to undersea cables.

The state-owned firm said cables in the Gulf and Mediterranean had been repaired and that the service was "fully restored", the official news agency WAM reported.

Etisalat had been offering alternative services during the repairs, after a number of undersea cables were damaged in late January and early February leading to disruptions in part of the Middle East and south Asia.

A ship's anchor severed one cable between the Emirates and Oman, it was revealed last week, but mystery remains over what caused the other cuts.

An Indian-owned operator announced earlier Monday that the Falcon cable in the southern Gulf and the Flag Europe Asia (FEA) cable, damaged off Egypt's Mediterranean coast, had been repaired.

© 2008 AFP