Devastated Mozambique Is Optimistic About Future : Civil war: The African nation is beset by transportation problems and food shortages. Meanwhile, cease-fire talks have dragged on for 18 months.

Despite slow progress in peace talks in Rome, officials in Mozambique are laying the groundwork to rebuild the country after 16 years of devastating civil war.

“If we start now, we are still in time. If we wait until we have a cease-fire, we will be too late,” said Oldemiro Baloi, Mozambique’s vice minister of cooperation.

The ninth round of 18-month-old peace talks between the Maputo government and Renamo, the right-wing rebel Mozambican National Resistance is under way in Rome, with the government accusing Renamo of delaying tactics.

Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano appealed at a Jan. 30 conference here of Western donors and 10 southern African states for international pressure to bring peace to his country.

A cease-fire and peace will, however, pose formidable problems for Mozambique, where about 5 million of its 15 million citizens are displaced internally, with another 1.5 million refugees in neighboring countries.

The legacy of Portuguese colonial rule that ended in 1975 and the subsequent civil war has left what little infrastructure Mozambique possessed in collapse.

Government and aid officials say millions of dollars will be needed to get displaced people back home, demobilize armies and absorb soldiers into civilian society and rebuild infrastructure such as roads, schools and health clinics.

The head of the U.N. Development Program in Mozambique, Peter Simkin, said that government demobilization proposals had received little donor response.

“Rural infrastructure will take probably decades to recover, there has been such universal destruction. Rehabilitation . . . is a very long-term goal and I’m not sure donor interest will last that long in Mozambique,” Simkin said.

Baloi said Mozambique had been hit financially by the collapse of East European Communist regimes and the Soviet Union, which had been major aid contributors. Moscow contributed about $150 million annually.

In addition to the loss of these funds, drought has caused further problems, which combined with the effects of war has produced a patchwork of hunger due to lack of transportation.

But Baloi said the government is looking to the future.

“We need a master plan to help the peace issue. A European Community consultant is here working to prepare an international conference to be held after a cease-fire to gather the international community to discuss new ways of supporting Mozambique in this phase.

“Preparedness is crucial,” Baloi said.

The government reached its target of $1.125 billion of aid pledged by donor nations for 1992 at a December meeting in Paris.

Diplomats and officials say that, given peace and security, Mozambique is potentially a rich country.

Simkin said that peasants resettled in fertile central Zambezia province became self-sufficient within two years after being provided with seeds and tools.