MIGRATION AND DRUG ISSUES HIGHLIGHT BUSH-FOX SUMMIT

SAN CRISTOBAL, Mexico - In the midst of the latest Iraq bombing,
President Bush yesterday declared the dawn of an "unprecedented
opportunity" for Mexico and the United States to resolve festering
conflicts over illegal immigration, drug trafficking and energy
shortages.

Bush, on his first trip abroad as president, joined Mexican President
Vicente Fox in announcing the immediate formation of a high-level
team to address migration and labor issues, including ideas for a
potentially controversial guest-worker program.

The chairmen of the team will be U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, Mexican Foreign
Secretary Jorge Castaneda and Mexican Internal Affairs Secretary
Santiago Creel.

"I trust your president. He's the kind of man you can look in the eye
and know he's shooting straight with you," said Bush of Fox, as he
stood squinting into a blazing sun during a bilingual press
conference held at Fox's ranch in this small town in Guanajuato state.

Fox, whose inauguration on Dec. 1 ended 71 years of one-party rule in
Mexico, represents "a new birth of freedom" for Mexico, Bush said.

In addition to questions about the substance of the all-day summit,
Mexican reporters, as aggressively as U.S. reporters, peppered Bush
with questions about why Iraq was bombed.

"Another war, Mr. President?" asked one.

A number of Bush Cabinet members were present at the president's
debut summit, including Powell and U.S. National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice. The two groups of leaders called an array of
initial priorities they set for binational relations yesterday the
"Guanajuato Proposal."

"Migration is one of the major ties that bind our societies," the
proposal states. "We believe that Mexico should make the most of the
skills and productivity of its workers at home. But we agree there
should be an orderly framework for migration which ensures humane
treatment, legal security and dignified labor conditions."

Neither Bush nor Fox gave any specifics about possibly starting a new
guest-worker program, which is currently gaining steam in the U.S.
Congress.

Castaneda and Powell, speaking Spanish and English, respectively,
each read a prepared statement about the plan before the two
presidents spoke.

"We're very excited about the new leaf that is being turned over in
the U.S-Mexican relationship," Rice said later.

The two presidents talked about a hemisphere-wide plan for free
trade, and about working with Canada on boosting energy supplies.

Bush said they also talked about the possibility of opening
"bottle-necks" in Mexico's capacity to transfer energy to the United
States. He said Mexico's Baja California state, perhaps, could
develop more capacity for transferring energy to the western United
States to alleviate shortfalls.

The two presidents also discussed conflict over the United States'
annual drug certification ritual, when the U.S. State Department and
Congress decide what countries they will label reliable drug-fighting
partners. Mexicans always are offended by the exercise - which has a
March 1 deadline - and have denounced it as self-righteous and
counter-productive.

"We need to work together on the drug issue," Bush said. "One of the
reasons why drugs are shipped - the main reason why drugs are shipped
through Mexico to the United States - is because United States
citizens use drugs. And our nation must do a better job of educating
our citizenry about the dangers and the evils of drug use."