MAJURO The Marshall Islands is to spend millions of dollars on a fibre optic cable link that will revolutionise communications in the isolated western Pacific nation, the government said on Friday.

The 100 million dollar cable is a joint project with the United States army and will link the US territory of Guam to the Marshall Islands atoll of Kwajalein, where the US Army operates a major missile testing facility.

The Marshall Islands will need to spend nearly 18 million dollars on its share of the cable and must make a down payment of two million dollars by November 21.

After several years of debating the project, Marshall Islands officials said Friday they were ready to back the project.

`Cabinet has already endorsed it, we really want it to happen,` transportation and communications minister Dennis Momotaro said.

Business leaders and health officials have been pushing the government in the Marshall Islands to fund the costly communications upgrade for some time.

`It is time that this country wakes up to the 21st century and takes hold of the opportunity that todays technology can offer us,` said Carlos Dominick, chief operations officer at a local construction company in Majuro.

Majuro Hospital surgeon Kamal Gunawardane said installing the fibre optic cable would result in major improvements in healthcare for the countrys 55,000 people.

He said a fast broadband connection would allow Marshalls doctors to contact medical experts in other countries almost instantly, even while surgery is taking place.

The army is installing the cable to allow missile tests to be controlled from Space and Missile Defense Command headquarters in Alabama, Lieutenant General Kevin Campbell of the US army said recently.

This would save the cost of sending large numbers of personnel to Kwajalein to conduct tests, he said.

The submarine cable will also link islands in the Federated States of Micronesia.