The death toll has risen to 13 from rioting that broke out last week in Maputo in protest over rising food prices, Mozambique's health minister Ivo Garrido said yesterday.

"I am sorry to say that the number of deaths rose from 10 to 13. On Friday, two more lifeless bodies were taken to a Maputo hospital. One patient died last night in Maputo central hospital," he said.

The protests broke out last Wednesday after an increase in bread prices, which came on top of recent hikes in prices for electricity, water and fuel.

Police used rubber bullets and live ammunition to break up the protests that spread to other parts of the country.

About 150 people have been arrested in the wake of the riots, the country's state-run radio reported yesterday.

It quoted police spokesman Joaquim Selemane as saying police were attempting to identify the ringleaders of the protests, which were organised by cellphone text messages and which left hundreds of people injured.

He told the broadcaster that 142 people "were arrested for burning tyres and property destruction plus six suspected of sending text messages" to incite the protests.

A 30% rise in the price of bread has sparked anger in one of the world's poorest countries, but the government has said it is helpless in the face of soaring global wheat prices.

Maputo was rocked last week by the riots. Protests also erupted in the central town of Chimoio and in Matola, an industrial suburb of the capital.

Opposition parties and human rights groups have criticised the government, saying it failed to gauge the anger that would be unleashed by the 30% bread price rise and increases in water and electricity tariffs.

Although Mozambique is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, it has never fully recovered from its civil war, which ended in 1992. Income disparities are glaring and poverty remains gut-wrenching.