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Border control tops North Americans' Cancun talks

Mexico pledged to strengthen border security and stem the flow of illegal migrants heading north, and said it will use a visit by US President George W. Bush this week to prod US lawmakers on immigration reform.

Border issues are expected to be the focus of a two-day meeting that began yesterday between Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Fox was planning to use the talks to press the US Congress to back a migration accord favorable to Mexico, but Mexican officials warned against expecting big results from the meeting.

"We will reiterate to President Bush ... to the American Congress that Mexico is willing to take responsibility on the migration issue, to look for solutions domestically to the migration problem," Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said late on Wednesday.

"With that, we hope to strengthen this position that legalization of those already in the United States is needed," Derbez said, while warning "please don't expect a major breakthrough" at the meeting.

Mexico's deputy secretary for North America, Geronimo Gutierrez, said, "We think it is in the interest of both nations to have a modern and secure border because every day 1 million people legally cross it."

Fox, whose term ends Dec. 1, has also responded to calls from the US for greater cooperation on border security.

Some of Mexico's cooperation pledges come from a document that was approved by the Mexican Congress in February. The document, dubbed Mexico Before the Migration Phenomenon, outlines goals and recommendations of a committee of Mexican legislators, executive branch officials, diplomats, academics, foreign policy experts and social group leaders.

Fox will also push for the expansion of an existing guest-worker program when he meets with Harper. Mexico sends about 12,000 Mexican workers per year to work in agriculture and construction mainly in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Manitoba. Gutierrez said Mexico will like to expand the guest-worker program to two more Canadian provinces.

Harper will also be intent on sparking a thaw in frosty relations between Ottawa and the White House during a one-on-one meeting between Bush yesterday.
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