Maputo — Mozambique has decided to pull out of a project to establish a shipping route from landlocked Malawi to the Indian Ocean, along the Shire and Zambezi rivers.

The project had been proposed by the Malawian government, in the attempt to open another outlet to the sea for Malawian trade. But the route would run for hundreds of kilometres though Mozambican territory, and is thus entirely dependent on Mozambican authorisation.

Mozambican Foreign Minister, Oldemiro Baloi, told Radio Mozambique that the project fell through because deadlines for the environmental impact studies had not been respected.

A tripartite memorandum of understanding on the shipping project was signed earlier this year by the Mozambican, Malawian and Zambian Transport Ministers, respectively Paulo Zucula, Khumbo Kachali and Godfrey Lungwangwa. But it was dependent on a favourable outcome to the environmental studies.

A Zimbabwean consortium was hired to carry out the studies, but Mozambican officials soon began to doubt the competence of the consortium. Months passed with no sign of the studies, and Baloi declared that this violation of the deadlines led Mozambique to withdraw from the project.

Relations with Malawi had already cooled due to groundless claims that a fuel shortage in Malawi was caused by congestion in the Mozambican ports of Beira and Nacala. Managers of both ports promptly denied the allegation, and suggested that the real problem was Malawi's shortage of foreign exchange.

A nationwide power cut on Friday was the latest symptom of Malawi's economic malaise, and over the past week there have even been interruptions to the broadcasts of Malawian state radio and television.