  A holographic derivation of the entanglement entropy in quantum (conformal)
field theories is proposed from AdS/CFT correspondence. We argue that the
entanglement entropy in d+1 dimensional conformal field theories can be
obtained from the area of d dimensional minimal surfaces in AdS_{d+2},
analogous to the Bekenstein-Hawking formula for black hole entropy. We show
that our proposal perfectly reproduces the correct entanglement entropy in 2D
CFT when applied to AdS_3. We also compare the entropy computed in AdS_5 \times
S^5 with that of the free N=4 super Yang-Mills.
