Maputo, Mozambique — Money the international community pledged at a donor conference in Rome last May for post-flood reconstruction in southern Mozambique - following disastrous floods in February 2000 - continues to trickle in.

On Wednesday the Mozambican and Japanese governments signed an agreement under which the latter would make available 510 million yen (more than 4.8 million US dollars) for the purchase of rice for the victims of last year's floods.

Japan had earlier in February this year made available 300 million yen intended for relief, which was channelled through the World Food Programme (WFP).

Signing the agreement were Mozambican Deputy Foreign Minister Hipolito Patricio, and Japan's Ambassador in Maputo, Yoshihiro Nose.

The money is arriving more than ten months after it was pledged, and when the country is in the middle of another flood crisis, this time in the Zambezi valley in central Mozambique.