The court ordered that the vessel, "State of Nagaland", be held at the Colombo port where it berthed Sunday after accidentally severing the cable known as the SEA-ME-WE-III with its anchor.

The submarine cable connecting Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe was damaged at a point some 10 kilometres (six miles) off the Sri Lankan coast cutting off some 800,000 telephone and Internet users.

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), which is partly owned and fully managed by NTT of Japan, said it suffered a loss of five million dollars following Sunday's damage to the cable and wanted the owners of the vessel to pay it.

"SEA-ME-WE-III project maintenance staff are on the site and engaged in the restoration process," SLT said in a statement faxed to journalists. Company officials said they hoped to restore services "in a day or two."

The disruption also hit SLT's international call and data services, the company said.

Internet services were available only at a few places in the capital where private operators connect to the Internet backbone through their own international gateways.

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