Maputo — The Chinese government has pledged a further 2.5 million US dollars to finance work to remove soil from the site where the new Mozambican national stadium is being built.

The schedule remains unchanged, that is, that the stadium will be complete before the football World Cup to be held in South Africa, in 2010.

To this end, Mozambique and China signed a memorandum of understanding in Maputo on Monday, according to which the money, that had not been initially budgeted, but was shown to be necessary because of the nature of the soil, is to be disbursed in time to complete the work on schedule.

The document was signed between Mozambique's Minister of Tourism, Youth and Sports, Fernando Sumbana, and the Chinese Ambassador Tiang Guang Feng.

This means that the national stadium, the biggest and most modern sports infrastructure in the country, with a capacity for 42,000 seats, will now cost 60 million US dollars.

Paying a visit to the site, in the outer Maputo suburb of Zimpeto, for the first time as Youth and Sports Minister, Sumbana expressed satisfaction with the progress of the work, and with the transfer of know how by the Chinese technical staff.

"Here, at the national stadium, we had the opportunity to see that the work is progressing at a satisfactory pace, with the involvement of the knowledge that our Chinese partners are dispensing and also the involvement of the Mozambican multi-sector team, that is fully dedicated to this work", said Sumbana.

The technical team on the site said that the construction of the foundations will be completed before the end of this month, and that, of the 850 planned pillars, only 100 are still to be installed.

Speaking of his other visits to sports facilities, Sumbana said that the stadium in Pemba, capital of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, is also making good progress, and should be ready for use by 2010

As for the 'Mario Esteves Coluna" stadium, in the town of Namaacha, on the border with Swaziland, Sumbana said that only a few details are left to turn it into a true training ground for new Mozambican athletes.

Le/bm/pf (372) 10309 GUEBUZA CONDEMNS ASSASSINATION OF GUINEA-BISSAU PRESIDENT

Maputo, 3 Mar (AIM) - Mozambican President Armando Guebuza said on Monday that it is "incomprehensible" that today there are still people who want to change the political order by using illegal and unconstitutional means.

He was reacting to the assassination earlier in the day of the President of Guinea-Bissau, Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira, killed at his home by a group of soldiers, in apparent retaliation for the bomb blast that took the life of the Chief of Staff of the armed forces, Gen Tagme Na Waie.

Guebuza told reporters that he found both murders repugnant, and completely unacceptable.

He called for calm in Guinea-Bissau, and guaranteed that Mozambique, along with the other members of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), is following developments there closely.

Former President Joaquim Chissano, interviewed by the independent daily "O Pais", said that he had learnt with deep sorrow of the deaths of Tagme Na Waie and Nino Vieira.

"This is very sad for the Guinean people", he said. "We are in an epoch where conflicts should be solved through dialogue. Guinea-Bissau is a backward country that needs international support so that it can get back onto its feet, and this support will only be possible with stability".

Chissano knows Guinea-Bissau well. He was special envoy to the country of then UN General Secretary Kofi Annan in the run-up to the elections of 2005 which returned Vieira (who had been deposed in a 1998 coup) to power. He recalled that in that period he had worked with both Tagme Na Waie and Vieira to re-establish peace.

Chissano said that Tagme Na Waie "played a fundamental role in the pacification of the country, and in Nino Vieira's return from exile, since he appealed to the armed forces to abstain from politics. It is sad that they have had such a tragic end".

Nonetheless, Chissano did not believe that the murders mean that Guinea-Bissau can be written off as a failed state. "Work is needed, in this moment of instability, so that Guinea-Bissau becomes viable", he said. "But we should remember that the country has been stable for the past four and a half years. Now it's up to the people of Guinea-Bissau, to ECOWAS, and to the CPLP to work to restore stability. The prime responsibility lies with the Guinean people. You can't just throw a country away".