  Optimal construction of quantum operations is a fundamental problem in the
realization of quantum computation. We here introduce a newly discovered
quantum gate, B, that can implement any arbitrary two-qubit quantum operation
with minimal number of both two- and single-qubit gates. We show this by giving
an analytic circuit that implements a generic nonlocal two-qubit operation from
just two applications of the B gate. We also demonstrate that for the highly
scalable Josephson junction charge qubits, the B gate is also more easily and
quickly generated than the CNOT gate for physically feasible parameters.
