Egyptian users of P2P and file-sharing services are being asked to help out after two of three cables that carry Internet traffic deep under the Mediterranean Sea snapped, disrupting service Thursday across a wide swath of Asia and the Middle Eas

The cables lie undersea just north of the Egyptian port of Alexandria, but repairs could take a week once workers arrive at the site, and engineers were scrambling to reroute traffic to satellites and to other cables.

"Two of our cables are affected; everyone will go onto a third cable," ministry spokesman Mohammed Taymur told AFP. "But that will not be enough bandwidth. The cable will be overloaded and no one will be able to get access" unless people honour the ministry request.

"People should know how to use the Internet because people who download music and films are going to affect businesses who have more important things to do," he said.