MAPUTO, April 24 (AFP) - At least 17 percent of Mozambique's teachers will die of AIDS during the next 10 years, according to a new study released on Wednesday by the education ministry.

"The picture is sombre, with the disease taking a serious toll amongst our teachers," deputy education minister Telmira Pereira told state radio.

AIDS is already the leading cause of death among teachers at all levels of education.

Pereira did not say how many teachers were currently infected with the HIV virus that leads to AIDS or or how many had died.

Schools in the impoverished southern African country are already suffering a serious shortage of teachers that has left millions of children without classes.

HIV is most prevalent among young people, particularly in urban areas and along the key transport routes linking Mozambique with Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa -- nations that have some of the highest infection rates in the world.

Most of Mozambique's teachers are young and the rate of infection among them is higher than among the general population.

Official statistics show 12 percent of Mozambique's 17 million people are infected with HIV, while a further 700 people are infected every day.

AIDS orphans in the country number about 300,000 and the United Nations Children's Fund estimates that number will top one million in the next five years.

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