By Angelo Amante

ROME (Reuters) -Italian power grid operator Terna and its Greek counterpart IPTO signed on Monday a deal worth nearly 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) on a new undersea electricity interconnector between Italy and Greece.

The deal was announced after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hosted a summit with her Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis at Rome's 17th-century Villa Doria Pamphili, also involving ministers from both countries.

"(On interconnections) we have an advantage that comes from our geographical location in the Mediterranean, which has become central again in global dynamics, as the shortest route between the Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific," Meloni told reporters.

The deal came after a huge blackout hitting Spain and Portugal last month raised questions over the resilience of the European power grid, prompting nations to seek to diversify routes and supplies.

The new high-voltage link, named GRITA 2, will have a transmission capacity of up to 1,000 MW and span approximately 300 km in total, including around 240 km of subsea cable at depths of up to 1,000 metres, Terna said.

"It will contribute to the achievement of decarbonization targets and strengthen the position of Italy and Greece as electricity hubs in the Mediterranean," the statement said, adding the two companies would invest 1.9 billion in the project.

The new infrastructure - which on the Italian side will start from the south-eastern Puglia region - will operate alongside an existing interconnection which has been in place since 2002, with a 500 MW capacity.

Greece's Mitsotakis also said a deal was struck between Italy's railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) and Athens' transport ministry for investments to improve railway safety in Greece, where a train crash killed 57 people in 2023.

"In practice, it's about kickstarting a relationship... which was tested in the shadow of a big tragedy," the Greek leader said referring to that deal.

Greece's Hellenic Train is a unit of Italy's FS. ($1 = 0.8990 euros)

(Reporting by Angelo Amante and Angeliki Koutantou, Editing by Alvise Armellini)