BUSH'S GOAL: NEW KINSHIP WITH MEXICO

WASHINGTON -- Proclaiming hemispheric solidarity and pledging to work hard
at building a new relationship with the United States' neighbor to the
south, President Bush leaves this morning for a summit with Mexican
President Vicente Fox.

The 71/2-hour visit will be Bush's first venture to a foreign country since
he took office last month and, despite the intended informality of the
setting, he faces an agenda of issues long resistant to diplomatic resolution.

Along with the familiar U.S.-Mexican issues of drugs, immigration and
trade, the California power crisis has pushed the matter of energy policy
onto the agenda. But officials in both countries have warned in advance of
Bush's arrival that Mexico offers no quick solution to the threats of
rolling blackouts that haunt California daily.

In fact, U.S. officials point out, Mexico faces its own impending energy
shortages and is in dire need of massive outside investments.

During his presidential campaign, Bush spoke often of a future hemispheric
power grid stretching from the Yucatan to the Yukon. But the president made
no mention of power in a preview of the trip he offered during a speech at
the State Department yesterday.

"Some look south and see problems," he said. "Not me. I look south and see
opportunities and potential."

That, he said, was the message he will carry to Fox's sprawling ranch in
San Cristobal, near Leon in Guanajuato state. The decision to accept Fox's
invitation was meant to show American delight at the blossoming of
democracy symbolized by Fox's election last year as the first opposition
president in 71 years.

"The door is open to a closer partnership with the United States," Bush
said. "But nothing about this new relationship is inevitable. Only through
hard work will we get it right."

The president said he wants to get Fox's views "on expanding trade
throughout the hemisphere, on safe and orderly migration, on expanding
educational opportunity for all our children, and what we can do together
to fight drug trafficking and other types of organized crime."

For perhaps the first time since 1909, when William Howard Taft became the
first U.S. president to go to Mexico to meet his counterpart, the agenda
has been largely set by the Mexicans.

"We're not used to that," said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American
Dialogue, a policy forum on hemispheric affairs.

The unusual assertiveness of the Mexicans, analysts agree, is attributable
to several factors: Bush's newness in office, the lack of a new "Mexico
team" in the State Department or the National Security Council, Fox's
heightened moral stature because of his democratic underpinnings, and,
remarkably, Mexico's new status as the No. 2 trading partner to the United
States.

"The Bush administration is playing catch-up. They're trying to get settled
in and work on an agenda," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the
Mexico Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The
Fox administration had a very definite head start on this meeting's
preparations."

Although also new to office, Fox has had more time to prepare, giving the
Mexican government an advantage in pushing for more substance in the
summit. The U.S. team is willing to talk about irritants in the
relationship, but is putting more stress on the personal aspects of the
meeting.

"Establishing the relationship is the most important thing," said a senior
administration official yesterday. Over protests from reporters, she said
she could not be identified by name.

"This is an effort for the two presidents to establish a really good
relationship so that when there are difficult issues on the agenda they
feel they can talk about them," the official added.

But she spoke about Bush's optimism heading into the talks. "The president
has a very clear sense that we have a historic opportunity here to turn a
new page in U.S.-Mexican relations," she said.

Those relations are generally considered to be their warmest in decades.

"There is a feeling that this is a magical moment when all of the
constraints that have crippled this relationship and made it less than a
full-fledged alliance may lift," said M. Delal Baer, a Mexico expert at the
center.

Thomas "Mack" McLarty, who was President Clinton's special envoy for Latin
America, said Fox is the first Mexican president to be viewed as a
potential partner with a U.S. president.

"The relationship between the United States and Mexico has never been more
equitable than it is today," McLarty said.

Bush enjoys good ties in Mexico that he formed as governor of Texas.

But he is unlikely to give Fox all he wants. Bush particularly stops short
of embracing Fox's call for free movement of people across the border.

Bush also has yet to endorse Fox's objections to the annual process
mandated by Congress in which the United States has to "certify" Mexico's
anti-drug efforts.

Bush also wants to hear Fox explain his views on Cuba, with many of Bush's
advisers withholding judgment until they see what Fox does in an upcoming
annual human rights vote by the United Nations in Geneva.

But Bush has scored points in Mexico by embracing a decision last week
ordering the United States, as part of the North American Free Trade
Agreement, to permit Mexican trucks north of the border.

"What the Bush administration has done so far is trucking and this trip,
and that's about all they can do so early," said Jorge Dominguez, a Harvard
professor.

That -- coupled with Fox's democratic credentials -- contributes to the
feelings of good will surrounding the summit.

"President Fox enjoys enormous prestige in the United States," Baer said.
"That counts for a lot. It is partially responsible for the honeymoon and
the festive spirit that is going to surround this meeting. This is going to
be something of a love fest."