Three decades after work began, Mozambique yesterday inaugurated an €80-million bridge over the Zambezi River, a major link for a country long divided between north and south.

President Armando Guebuza, for whom the bridge has been named, said at the ceremony it was a symbol of national unity and the realisation of a long-delayed national project.

"The history of this bridge is almost as old as our national independence, and you could say it has suffered the same vicissitudes,"

Guebuza said. European Commission president José Manuel Barroso sent a message, hailing the 2.5-kilometre bridge - one of Africa's longeset - as a boost to the country's development.

"The completion of the Zambezi bridge allows a more efficient contribution to the development of commerce, and national and regional integration," Barroso said in a statement read at the ceremony. The idea of building the bridge dates back to the 1950s when Mozambique was under Portuguese colonial rule. But the country's 10-year war for independence followed by 16 years of civil war derailed the project for decades.

The Mozambican government began work on the bridge in 1977, two years after independence, but soon had to abandon construction as civil war enveloped the country.

The war between ruling party Frelimo and rebel movement Renamo split Mozambique largely along north-south lines, a divide that still troubles the country.