By Charles Mangwiro

CAIA, Mozambique, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Thousands of flood victims are pouring into crowded refugee camps in central Mozambique, straining relief efforts and prompting fears of a food shortage, authorities said on Monday.

Weeks of heavy rains have triggered flash floods along the mighty Zambezi river and its tributaries, washing away homes, bridges, livestock and crops in four central provinces in the low-lying southern African nation.

Some 170,000 people have been displaced and at least 45 have died as a result of the flooding, the worst to hit the former Portuguese colony since the 2000-2001 floods that killed some 700 people and drove another half a million from their homes.

Aid workers were battling on Monday to supply food and fresh water to a ballooning refugee population, with an estimated 2,000 people each day streaming into temporary accommodation centers set up by the Red Cross and other agencies.

"We still have some food, but it's not enough," said Joao Ribeiro, deputy director of Mozambique's National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC).

Ribeiro said sanitary conditions in the shelters were worsening due to a lack of toilets and basic hygiene, raising fears of potential outbreaks of cholera and dysentery among the refugees.

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza was scheduled on Monday to fly over some of the areas hardest hit by the flooding and hold a press conference in Caia, a central Mozambican town that is a command center for the relief effort.

Guebuza may ask for additional international assistance, officials said.

The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) is already distributing food to refugees in the affected provinces. Neighbouring South Africa and the European Union also have pledged more help for the relief effort.

But aid workers say the effort to feed and shelter refugees has been complicated by the poor state of roads, a problem that could become worse as more rain falls in the coming weeks.

March traditionally is one of the wettest periods in the country's rainy season.

"A lot of areas are still very difficult to get through and there are new pockets of disaster areas forming," said Peter Rodrigues, emergency relief coordinator for the WFP in Caia. "The challenge is that these people are spread out, making it difficult to reach them."

In southern Mozambique, which is home to the bulk of the country's economically important tourist resorts, authorities were assessing the damage from Cyclone Favio, which came ashore on Thursday with winds of up to 270 kph (169 mph).

The cyclone slammed into the coast, knocking down buildings, uprooting trees and killing five people near Vilanculos. Mozambique's military on Monday was attempting to restore water and electricity in the resort city.

The storm, which weakened into a tropical storm as it swept northward through the country, prompted an evacuation of tourists from luxury hotels in the Bazaruto archipelago, a string of islands 40 km (25 miles) in the Indian Ocean.

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