ILLEGAL DRUGS AND IMMIGRATION

The State Department said it looked forward to working closely with the
Fox, a charismatic Harvard-educated rancher and businessman, on the three
key areas for the two neighbours: trade, migration and narcotics.

For decades, Mexicans have been crossing the 2,000-mile (3,219 km) U.S.
border illegally in search of work and a better life, and one in every 15
Mexicans born in Mexico now lives in the United States.

Mexico is also the main entry point for cocaine, marijuana and other
illegal drugs sold on U.S. streets.

U.S. drug enforcement agencies want Mexico to step up extradition of drug
traffickers wanted in the United States.

Clinton administration officials said Fox was determined to crack down on
drug cartels that have corrupted Mexican authorities and unleashed violence
along the border.

"There is a real opportunity here. This is a sophisticated leader who has a
tremendous revulsion for the violence and corruption that come out of
drug-related organisations," White House drug policy chief Barry McCaffrey
told Reuters.

"He is extremely determined to confront these international drug
criminals," he said.

McCaffrey said 82 million trucks and cars and 300 million people cross the
U.S.-Mexico border each year and the flow of drugs cannot be stopped
without Mexico's cooperation.

He praised Zedillo for identifying drug trafficking as Mexico's No. 1
national security threat and Attorney General Jorge Madrazo for confronting
drug gangs in the last three years.

McCaffrey said Fox will have to build a new administration and intends to
base it on meritocracy.

But Roett said the drug trade will continue to be a thorny issue in
relations with Mexico as long the United States fails to cut the demand for
narcotics that drives the illegal trade.

Financial experts said Fox's election will be a boon for trade and
investment in Mexico, and they expect him to be more aggressive in
privatising state-run companies and cleaning up the seamier parts of the
Mexican economy.

Fox's wide margin of victory, which gave his National Action Party (PAN) a
plurality in both chambers of Congress, helped dispel fears of a financial
crisis like the peso crash that followed Zedillo's inauguration in 1994.

"There is an overwhelming sense that after four very disruptive government
transitions, this will be a normal one," said Paulo Vieira da Cunha, a
senior economist with Lehman Brothers.

"This candidate comes in with a level of legitimacy that no other Mexican
president has had," he added.

Political diversity was here to stay in Mexico, with the leftist
Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) consolidating its hold over Mexico
City, where ruling party mandarin Jesus Silva Herzog came in third, Roett said.

Fox, however, will not be able to govern Mexico alone, and will have to
pull in independents and moderates from the other two main parties, the
political analyst said.