At least 725 Mexicans died in 2008 trying to cross border into the US territory, according to a Thursday report of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Some 700,000 Mexicans, mostly women and children, emigrated to the United States in 2008 to look for work there, said the report released by a PRI migratory committee of the Chamber of Deputies.

About 100,000 of the Mexican children were deported by the US government in 2008, said the report.

Two Mexicans perished each day on average trying to enter the United States, said Edmundo Ramirez, a coordinator of the committee.

The number has made the Mexico-US border "the biggest cemetery of migrants," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2009)