Mexican President Calderon to visit Obama in May (Roundup)

Mar 18, 2010, 21:12 GMT

Mexico City - Mexican President Felipe Calderon will travel to the United States in May for his first visit to the White House since President Barack Obama took office.

Calderon plans to be in Washington May 19-20 for talks with Obama and other US officials and lawmakers, the Mexican Presidency said Thursday.

During the visit, Obama will honour Calderon with only his second state dinner for a foreign leader since he entered the White House in January 2009. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said this was 'in recognition of the deep ties and strong relationship' between the two leaders.

The gesture was regarded as important at a time of tension in bilateral relations over drug trafficking and over the murder of three people over the weekend with ties to the US consulate in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez.

Calderon and Obama have met several times, both in bilateral and in regional settings. At the White House, they are set to discuss border infrastructure, trade, cooperation against cross-border organized crime, immigration and other issues, the two sides said.

Mexico continues to insist on the shared responsibility of the two countries in the fight against drug gangs. The United States is not only the main market for drugs going through Mexican territory but supplies 90 per cent of the weapons used by drug traffickers.

On Tuesday, a high-level US delegation led by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is to travel to Mexico to discuss the Merida Initiative, a US-sponsored plan to support the fight against drug gangs south of its border.