BUSH GIVES MEXICO BACKING ON DRIVE AGAINST NARCOTICS

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LOS RANCHOS, Mexico, Feb. 16 -- Acknowledging that
Americans' demand feeds drug traffic, President Bush signaled today that he
would support Mexico in its efforts to end the annual ritual in which
Congress requires the Mexican government to prove its commitment to the war
against narcotics or face economic sanctions.

On his first trip outside the United States as president, Mr. Bush said his
choice of Mexico was intended to show the importance of Mexico, and he used
the occasion to open formal talks for resolving disputes over trade,
immigration and the fight against drug trafficking.

With unusual candor, Mr. Bush said the reason that billions of dollars in
drugs are shipped across Mexico is that people in the United States buy them.

Asked if he would work to end the annual drug certification process, which
the Mexican government deeply resents, he said he was confident the
administration of President Vicente Fox was committed to fighting the
traffickers.

President Bush said he would deliver that message to Congress as lawmakers
discuss proposals to end the certification process. The annual decision, in
which the United States judges whether countries are living up to their
commitments in the war on drugs, has been criticized in Mexico as a
humiliating ritual and one that infringes on the nation's sovereignty.

After a seven-hour meeting, the two presidents agreed to begin
cabinet-level talks to develop programs for ending violence against Mexican
immigrants and expanding guest worker programs in the United States.

Officials from Washington indicated that they would comply with a recent
Nafta panel finding that the United States was unfairly prohibiting Mexican
trucks from carrying goods across the border. And President Bush said he
would move energy negotiations "to the level of presidents."

For most of the day, however, in a setting that was free of pomp and
protocol, the two presidents spoke with each other as friends would. In
words and tone, Mr. Bush tried to strike an alliance with a man who, ending
decades of one-party rule by winning the Mexican presidency in December,
has become a symbol of democracy there and a rising star on the world stage.

President Fox made clear that Mexico would stand as an equal with the
United States as the two men work on a common agenda.

"Our nations are bound together by ties of history, family, values,
commerce and culture," President Bush said in a news conference at
President Fox's family ranch in the state of Guanajuato. "Today these ties
give us an unprecedented opportunity. We have the chance to build a
partnership that will improve the lives of citizens in both countries."

Mr. Bush added: "Geography has made us neighbors. Cooperation and respect
will make us partners."

Before ending his remarks, President Fox looked at President Bush and,
switching to English from Spanish, said, "Know that we consider you a
friend to Mexico, a friend to Mexican people and a friend of mine."

Informality marked the meeting of the presidents, which was staged to seem
not staged. Referred to by academics and taxi drivers alike as the "men in
cowboy boots," they visited at the Fox family ranch in this dusty village
in central Mexico.

Both leaders had said that, more than setting new policies, they wanted
this to be a kind of meeting between old friends who happened to become
presidents.

Mr. Fox and Mr. Bush met at least three times when Mr. Bush was governor of
Texas. Even as Mr. Fox played host for Mr. Bush's first trip abroad as
president, the Mexican could not stay cooped up for long in the trappings
of power. They endured an arrival ceremony full of protocol with firm
handshakes, warm smiles and a band playing lilting versions of both
national anthems. But before getting down to work, President Fox, true to
his image as an attentive son of ranchers, took the American home to meet
his Mama.

As maids emerged timidly from the kitchen, the presidents reached out with
hearty handshakes as if they were just a couple of hands coming in for
supper. One of the women seemed so swept up by the moment that she stared
at President Bush and swooned. Before even getting into their most serious
talks, the presidents were out of their blazers and ties, talking about the
qualities of a good Mexican saddle.

And in a piece of symbolic choreography, as the two presidents approached
their lecterns to speak to the press, they deliberately crossed paths so
that President Bush stood next to the flag of Mexico and President Fox next
to the American flag.

But aides to President Fox said the informal appearances belied the
substantive discussions that lasted through the whole meeting. The
presidents talked about issues ranging from United States military aid to
Colombia to the American military strike against Baghdad.

The two presidents talked about ways to work together to reduce the
economic and educational disparities between Mexico and the United States.

Aides said that serious commitments were made, including an agreement by
Mexico to begin giving back water to farmers in Texas, resolving a
long-disputed water debt. There were even conversations about the
importance of choosing common terms when trying to resolve issues that have
long divided their nations.

Aides to President Fox said, for example, that they would reconsider using
the word amnesty when talking about legal residency for the more than three
million undocumented Mexicans living in the United States. And, aides to
Mr. Fox said, they would seek words other than violence and brutality, when
talking about the plight of immigrants who die along the border because
they tend to incite fierce reactions in the United States and Mexico.

In a written agreement released yesterday by the two presidents, called the
Guanajuato Proposal, the governments used the word migration, rather than
immigration, as if the waves of Mexicans crossing the border were like
flocks of birds flying north. And in numerous places throughout the
document, the United States and Mexico, with unusual frankness about their
respective strengths and failures, made commitments to resolve the issues
that have most divided them.

Saying "migration is a tie that binds us, not divides us," the presidents
appointed a working group to explore new policies that would help stem the
tide of illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States and bolster
protections for immigrants along the border and at work north of the border.

For Mexico, the working group will be led by Foreign Minister Jorge G.
Castaneda and Interior Minister Santiago Creel. Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft will represent the United States.

Both presidents said they would try to devise a common energy policy. Mr.
Bush has spoken of seeking ways for the United States to import more
natural gas, oil and electricity from Mexico. But Mexico cannot meet its
own energy needs, as Mr. Fox acknowledged today. And Mexico's Constitution
gives the government nearly complete control of the energy market,
including energy production and transmission, making foreign investment
difficult.

The issue "needs to be elevated to the presidential level," Mr. Bush said.

"We need more supply," he said. "Demand is far outstripping supply, which
is creating a real problem for the working people of our respective countries."

Some of the most candid discussions revolved around the fight against drugs.

"The main reason why drugs are shipped through Mexico to the United States
is because United States citizens use drugs," Mr. Bush said. "Our nation
must do a better job of educating our citizenry about the dangers and evils
of drug use."

Mr. Bush said there was a movement in Congress to re-examine the benefits
and problems of the annual drug certification process. Every year since
1986, the White House has had to certify to Congress that Mexico is doing
its part on the war on drugs.

A failure to certify would make Mexico potentially ineligible for many
forms of United States assistance. Mr. Casteneda has said in the past that
Mexico finds the process irritating at best. And Mr. Bush said he intended
to tell Congress that it had a trustworthy ally in President Fox.

"He's the kind of man you can look in the eye and know he's shooting
straight with you," President Bush said of his Mexican counterpart.

President Bush added that he would tell members of Congress, "I firmly
believe that Mr. Fox will do everything in his power to root out the drug
lords."