U.S. ENDS COOPERATION IN MEXICAN PROBES

MEXICO CITY - The U.S. Treasury Department has stopped sharing information
with Mexico on financial crimes - including money laundering and terrorism -
after confidential information was leaked to the public.

The announcement Friday was a blow to cross-border crime fighting, which had
resulted in the arrests of several high-profile drug lords. U.S. officials
had previously cheered the Mexican government for working closely with them
to cripple organized crime.

Mexico's Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said Friday the move
affects monitoring of about 30,000 financial transactions a day and he
promised to regain U.S. confidence.

"We have to re-establish this flow of information," he said. "We have worked
in confidence with the U.S. government, and I think we can convince them
this was a special case."

The U.S. Embassy said Friday the Treasury Department had suspended
cooperation a day earlier, pending "guarantees that all delicate information
will be protected." Officials would not comment further.

In Washington, officials said they wanted to make sure information they
shared with Mexico was kept secret.

"The breech of confidential information is a serious matter that the
Treasury Department and the U.S. government will not take lightly," said
Molly Millerwise, a spokeswoman for the department. "It is critical that we
have the utmost confidence in our information-sharing relationship with all
foreign governments."

Officials in both countries monitor financial transactions and share
information on possible illegal activity, helping capture money launderers
and even corrupt politicians.

The problem apparently centers on a U.S. report describing dealings of
Mexico City Finance Director Gustavo Ponce, who disappeared after
clandestine videos of him gambling in Las Vegas were broadcast in Mexico.

The videos were accompanied by anonymous reports describing Ponce's lavish
spending in Las Vegas, allegedly with taxpayer money.

Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, embarrassed by the scandal,
later waved a copy of a U.S. report during a news conference, saying it
proved that federal authorities knew before he did that Ponce was corrupt
but took no action.

The leading potential candidate for president in 2006, Lopez Obrador has
accused U.S. officials of conspiring with aides of President Vicente Fox and
even with former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to discredit him.

U.S. officials and Fox's administration have denied that.

Lopez Obrador answered a summons Friday by federal prosecutors who have
suggested he illegally revealed details of a federal investigation.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Fox blamed Lopez Obrador for the U.S. decision
to stop sharing information with Mexico, saying that "when the Mexico City
mayor made (the information) public, the American authorities complained."

Hours earlier, at a news conference after his summons, Lopez Obrador accused
federal officials of leaking the information and acting in "an arbitrary and
cynical" manner by focusing on him.

Heading into the session, he walked through a pushing, shoving crowd of
photographers, reporters and cameramen, but made no statement.

Luis Astorga, a Mexican sociology professor who investigates drug
trafficking issues, said the suspension was a "strong wake-up call" from the
United States.

He said Mexico should take the warning seriously, and "get its house in
order." He speculated the United States was worried that confidential
information could end up being leaked not only to political parties and
newspapers but to criminals.

Stressing the importance of keeping documents confidential, Macedo denied
anyone in his department leaked the information and he pledged to find where
the security breach occurred.

"Imagine if investigations were aired publicly throughout the country, it
would give a heads up in any situation and, obviously, encourage the
criminals," he said.

Mexico's Treasury Department - also accused by Lopez Obrador of spilling the
information - declined to comment.

The revelations involving Ponce and several other members of Lopez Obrador's
party and administration have rocked Mexican politics, though they have
failed to knock Lopez Obrador from the top of Mexico's early presidential
election polls.

Businessman Carlos Ahumada, linked by prosecutors to the Ponce case, fled to
Cuba after television stations showed videos of him shoving stacks of money
at members of Lopez Obrador's party. He was associated, however, with a
party faction that rivaled Lopez Obrador and was under city investigation
before the scandal erupted.

Fox's election in 2000 unseated the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary
Party.