The Mozambican government said this week plans to build a US$520 million new deep-water harbour in the south would go ahead despite protests that there were two major ports nearby and the area was environmentally sensitive.

The plan for the harbour includes the building of a passenger terminal at Ponta Dobela, which is 20 km north of the tourist resort of Ponta do Ouro and an inland industrial free trade zone adjacent to the Maputo elephant reserve.

The proposed port at Dobela, which will have a cargo handling facility of 300 000 tonnes, is about 100 km south of the Maputo harbour which handles cargo for Mozambique's neighbours.

"Preliminary assessments of the project indicate that the project is viable and it will go ahead, come what may," Transport and Communications Minister Tomaz Salomao said.

He gave no date for when work would begin on constructing the harbour.

The developers, the publicly owned Moza-mbican Ports and Railway company and the Isle of Man-registered Porto Dobela Developments, have said the port would turn over US$344 million a year.

"So far there are three interested investors willing to participate in the project," the minister said, declining to name them.

Plans for the project were first drafted in 1999 but were delayed by protests from environmentalists who called for the project to be scrapped, he said.