Repair work on two broken undersea cables providing data services to parts of the Middle East and Asia should be completed by February 10, cable operator FLAG Telecom said.

The company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of India's No. 2 mobile operator Reliance Communications, said repair work on a section of the FLAG Europe-Asia cable between Egypt and Italy and the Falcon cable system off the coast of the United Arab Emirates was progressing steadily and was likely to finished by Sunday.

Undersea cable connections were disrupted off Egypt's northern coast last week when segments of two international cables were cut, affecting Internet access in the Gulf region and South Asia, and forcing service providers to re-route traffic.

A third undersea cable, Falcon, was reported broken between Dubai and Oman. FLAG said on Tuesday a ship had reached the location and repair work had started. - Reuters