The world's biggest telecommunications company has been created after shareholders of the German firm, Mannesmann, approved a takeover bid by the Anglo-American mobile phone group, Vodafone-AirTouch.

In a statement, Vodafone-AirTouch said the transaction had secured just over sixty per cent of shareholder support.

The deal is the biggest merger in corporate history, creating a company worth more than three-hundred-billion dollars.

Last week, Mannesmann's supervisory board agreed the takeover terms.

The BBC Economics correspondent says the deal underlines the extent to which telecommunications is expected to generate growing profits as mobile phones offer improved access to the internet.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service