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Tex-Mex Summit

President Bush traveled to Mexico on Friday for a one-day meeting with his old friend President Vicente Fox, but news that U.S. planes had bombed five Iraqi military sites around Baghdad threatened to overshadow Mr. Bush's first foreign trip as chief executive.

"A routine mission was conducted to enforce the 'no fly' zone over southern Iraq," Mr. Bush told reporters at an outdoor news conference at President Fox's ranch in San Cristobal. "It was a mission about which I was informed and I authorized. But I repeat, it's a routine mission."

The events in the Middle East stole some of the thunder from the summit between the American and Mexican leaders, where the two presidents dealt with the same old issues that have always bedeviled U.S.-Mexican relations: drugs, trade and immigration.

Stopping short of specific commitments, the two leaders spoke of a "shared prosperity" between the United States and Mexico.

Mr. Bush made use of his limited Spanish to symbolize the kind of warm relationship he intends to build with his neighbor to the South.

"Geography has made us neighbors. Cooperation and respect will make us partners and the promise of the partnership was renewed and reinvigorated today," Mr. Bush said.

Fox heralded as a "clear message" the fact that Mr. Bush made Mexico his first foreign trip: "This starting point is very encouraging so that Mexicans and Americans together can inaugurate an era of shared prosperity together."

Replied Mr. Bush, "I intended it to be that way. Our nations are bound together by ties of history, family, values, commerce and culture."

On immigration, Mr. Bush said, "We exchanged ideas about safe and orderly migration, a policy that respects individuals on both sides of the border."

But in Mexican villages like Duarte, not far from San Cristobal, immigration isn't a matter of policy, but of survival, reports CBS News Correspondent Bill Plante. Every year, most of Duarte's young men, thousands of them, go to the United States either legally or illegally.

"The reason people go to the United States is that they want to live a better life," said Juan Leon, who spent 16 years going back and forth to work in the U.S., which is why he is now building one of the nicest houses in town.

Seven million Mexican-born immigrants live and work in the United States. Officials say the migrants send at least $8 billion a year back to Mexico. President Fox calls them "heroes."

Secretary of State Colin Powell announced the two countries were forming a special panel chaired by himself and Attorney General John Ashcroft along with top Mexican officials to deal with cross-border questions of migration and labor.

Mr. Bush said he and Fox, in their private meetings, spent considerable time on how best to share energy resources and the possibility of energy exploration in Canada, the United Stateand Mexico. "It is a hemispheric issue and it needs to be elevated to the presidential level," he said.

He refused to say definitively whether he would ask Congress to nullify a 14-year-old law requiring the U.S. president to certify annually how Mexico and some two dozen other countries are cooperating in the fight against drug trafficking. Mexico views the process as condescending.

Mr. Bush also acknowledged America's responsibility for creating the demand that drives the drug trade.

"United States citizens use drugs. And our nation must do a better job of educating our citizenry about the dangers and evils of drug use," he said.

Mexico has evolved as an economic player since the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1994. It recently eclipsed Japan to take the No. 2 slot among U.S. trading partners. Mr. Bush and Fox want to expand trade across the border, arguing that doing so will give Mexico the economic lift it needs to curb illegal immigration.

On anti-drug trafficking, Mexico has never failed to win certification for its efforts. The next deadline for State Department certification decisions is March 1.

Mexico views that process as condescending and hypocritical, given that the United States leads the world in illegal drug consumption. Fox wants the United States to find another way to address drug interdiction concerns.

One proposal before Congress would exempt Mexico from the certification process for one year. Another would end the process altogether.

©MMI Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press and Reuters Limited contributed to this report

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