TOKYO, Feb 27: Japanese and Russian telecom companies signed on Tuesday a deal to build a new underwater cable to speed up communication between Asia and Europe and serve as a backup in disasters.

Japan's NTT Communications Corp. and Russia's TransTelecom signed a memorandum of understanding to complete the 500-km fibre-optic undersea cable by the end of this year.The cable will carry 640 gigabits per second and connect to TransTeleCom's communication lines running along the tracks of the Trans-Siberian Railway, a joint statement said. The cable from Japan's northern island of Hokkaido to Russia's Sakhalin will be "the shortest uninterrupted link from Tokyo and other parts of Asia to Russia and Europe," it said.—AFP