An undersea telecommunications cable linking China with the United States has been cut for the second time in little more than a month, state media said on Sunday.

This time, however, the damage to telecom traffic is much more and Internet users will not be affected, the Beijing Morning Post said.

The fiber optic cable was cut Friday night about 108 kilometers (68 miles) off the Chinese coast on a stretch linking Shanghai to the south Chinese city of Shantou, according to the paper.

A small number of the circuits linking China to North America and Taiwan were affected but no Internet or voice traffic was interupted.

The paper reported repairs would take about two weeks and quoted unnamed experts as saying the damage to the underseas cable may have been caused by fishing boats.

In early February, the same cable was cut in the Pacific Ocean near Japan, causing havoc for millions of Chinese Internet users.