editorial comment Sorry Mr. Fox, but only legalization would solve the problem. It may take awhile. In the meantime, why don't you run Mexico for the benefits of Mexicans?

Mexican President Vicente Fox told the United States on Tuesday to stop complaining about his government's record in the drug war and instead work with him in fighting powerful cocaine cartels.

U.S. President George W. Bush's administration has become increasingly critical of Mexico's failure to stop a wave of drug violence along the U.S.-Mexico border and U.S. states along the frontier also have called for firmer action.

Fox told reporters in the northern city of Hermosillo that the United States has as many problems with drugs and organized crime as Mexico and that his government was doing its part.

"My call to the United States, whether it is a state government or the government of President Bush, is that, instead of pointing out problems, we make proposals and that we work together instead of each one working by himself," Fox said. "That's the only way we'll be able to win."

He also suggested U.S. police might not be doing enough to stop the flow of drugs.

"The question is, 'How do all the drugs that cross over there get to the consumer markets? What is being done on that side?'" Fox said.

Drug cartels move South American cocaine through Mexico by land, air and sea, often bribing police along the way. Mexico is also a major supplier of amphetamines and marijuana.

More than 600 people have been killed this year in a vicious turf battle between Mexico's cartels and the worst violence has been in rough cities along the border.

The U.S. government has repeatedly warned Americans not to travel to Nuevo Laredo, where more than 100 people have been slain since the start of the year.

Washington closed its consulate in Nuevo Laredo, which is across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas, for a week at the start of August. The move upset Mexico's government and further weakened a relationship that started out with great promise when Fox and Bush were newly elected but has been hurt by disputes over the Iraq war, U.S. immigration policy and the drug war.

Tony Garza, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has been at the center of the dispute. On Tuesday, he defended his decision to close the consulate in Nuevo Laredo but also suggested it was punishment for Mexico's inability to halt the bloodshed.

"Some have said that I ordered the shutdown to punish the Mexican government for it's failure to control violence in the region. And in a sense that's true," Garza said in the text of a speech he was scheduled to make in Denver.

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