Blantyre — Malawian Agriculture Minister Aleke Banda has promised that there will be no repetition of the obstacles imposed during the last two years on the processing of Mozambican tobacco in Malawi.

Speaking to Mozambican journalists in Blantyre on Saturday, Banda said that the agreement he had signed with his Mozambican counterpart Helder Muteia in Maputo in July solved the problem definitively.

"We have good relations of cooperation with Mozambique", he said. "I was in Maputo and we signed an agreement to regulate cross-border trade, not only in tobacco, but also in other goods.

But it was certainly tobacco that created most problems".

Banda added it was necessary to bear in mind that both Malawi and Mozambique are tobacco producing countries who do business with international tobacco companies that act according to their own rules. The intention of both countries, he stressed, was to eliminate problems, and this would involve the establishment of national organisations of tobacco producers.

In 2001, the Malawian government banned the entry of foreign tobacco. This made it impossible for Mozambican producers to process their tobacco in Malawi, until President Bakili Muluzi himself was persuaded to intervene and reverse the ban.

This year the Malawian government imposed a surcharge of 10 per cent on all foreign tobacco entering the country, a move which caused outrage on the Mozambican side of the border, and was cancelled after two weeks.

Asked about the drought-related hunger in Malawi, Banda confirmed that at least 3.3 million Malawians are in need of food aid. He blamed the El Nino weather phenomenon (the abnormal warming of the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean) for the failure of the rains in the 2001/02 growing season.

He said that the Malawian authorities are developing irrigation schemes in parts of the country, and hope to make better use of water from the country's lakes for agricultural purposes, in order to combat hunger.

As for the polemic on genetically modified crops, Banda said that Malawi is receiving GM maize as part of the food aid it requires "but we have launched a gigantic campaign to inform the public that this maize is only to be eaten, and not to be sown".

Key to the Malawian relief operation is the Mozambican port of Nacala, and the Nacala-Malawi railway. It is hoped that the line will move 237,000 tonnes of grain to Malawi over nine months.