By Charles Mangwiro

MAPUTO, July 9 (Reuters) - Italy will expand its economic interests in southern Africa through investments in Mozambique, Italian deputy economic development minister Adolfo Urso said on Wednesday.

Urso, who is leading a seventy-member Italian business delegation on a tour of southern Africa, said Italy's interest in Mozambique was partly due to its political stability.

"Mozambique may become a strategic gateway to a stronger Italian economic presence in southern Africa and so we have started a development plan to step up trade relations between Italy and Mozambique", Urso told reporters in Maputo.

"We hope to identify potential co-operation areas with business partners and we are particularly interested in investing in areas such as agriculture, agro-industry, tourism, energy, and in helping respond to the food and fuel crisis."

Urso said Italy, which hosted the peace talks that saw an agreement signed to end Mozambique's civil war in 1992, was encouraging Italian businesses to invest in Mozambique as part of a plan to enter other markets in Africa.

On Monday, Mozambique state-owned fuel company Petromoc signed a U$15 million agreement with Italy's Moncada Energy Group and Mozambican services company 3T Servicos Lda, which will culminate in the establishment of a new agro-industrial venture to produce vegetable oil and biodiesel.

Mozambique -- one of Africa's poorest countries -- said earlier this year it would liberalise foreign investment rules and offer more incentives to investors in a bid to boost overseas inflows by 50 percent to $12 billion in 2008.

The moves are part of efforts to spur the country's economy, one of the smallest but fastest growing in southern Africa.

Mozambique recorded $8 billion in foreign investment last year. (Editing by Victoria Main)