LONDON (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile UK has signed a partnership with Viacloud, a telecoms operator based in Bahrain, as it seeks to expand its offerings that target different ethnic communities. 

Viacloud will become the first Middle Eastern mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) -- which resell network capacity they buy wholesale from network operators -- to enter the European mobile market, T-Mobile UK said in a statement on Monday.

The UK operator, which plans to merge with France Telecom's Orange in Britain, has about 10 such partnerships with MVNOs.

It aims to become a leading global provider of telecoms for ethnic communities, and focuses on the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

Viacloud is one of a growing number of Gulf operators to seek expansion further afield as their home markets are liberalised. It sells calling cards for cut-price international calls, and operates accounts and calling shops.

The company is active in Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, the United States and now Britain.

"This deal signals our intent to become a major player in the ethnic MVNO arena," T-Mobile UK's chief marketing officer Srini Gopalan said.

T-Mobile reckons it has more than half of Britain's wholesale market. It signed its first large agreement with an MVNO predominantly targeting an ethnic customer base, Vectone Mobile, last October.

Britain's ethnic calling market has about 10 million subscribers generating about 7 billion minutes of calls a year, according to T-Mobile. 

The company said the market would likely buck the trend of falling voice revenues as international calling-card minutes migrate to mobile.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; editing by Karen Foster) www.reuters.com