US President Barack Obama, on his first visit to Mexico on Thursday, publicly backed Mexico's battle against drug traffickers and promised the United States would do more to halt the southward flow of guns and capital that fuel the conflict.

"At a time when the Mexican government has taken on the drug cartels which have plagued both sides of the border, it is critical that the United States joins as a full partner ... on our side of the border, dealing with the flow of guns and cash south," Obama, who took office on Jan. 20, told a public welcoming ceremony given by his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon.

Calderon's government began a fierce battle against the nation's drug cartels within weeks of taking office in December 2006. During 2008, some 6,300 people died as the Mexican army and police fought the cartels and the cartels fought each other for territory.

In recent weeks, Mexico has focused diplomatic efforts on how guns coming from the United States help fuel the conflict. Last week, Mexico's ambassador the United States, Arturo Sarurkhan, told media there that 90 percent of weapons were brought into Mexico from the United States, where gun laws are looser than in Mexico.

"When Mexico is not just a regional leader but a global leader, it is critical that we join together around the issues that can be solved by the two nations," Obama said, identifying poverty and climate change specifically among these.

George W. Bush, Obama's predecessor, was reluctant to act on climate change and kept the United States out of the Kyoto Protocol on the issue.

"The United States and Mexico will have to stand side by side in promoting common security and prosperity," Obama noted.

He did not give any direct reply to comments in the welcome speech given by Felipe Calderon urging the United States to conduct a comprehensive migratory reform: a project that evaded Bush, as the US legislature rejected several bills on the topic during his presidency. Obama recently raised the topic at a meeting with the Congress' Hispanic caucus, a group of US legislators with roots in the Spanish speaking Americas.

Also missing from the speech was any discussion of a recent US-Mexico trade dispute. In March, Mexico set new duties worth 2.4 billion dollars on 89 US products in retaliation to the US Congress' cancellation of a pilot program for Mexican cross-border truckers.

The United States had committed to allow Mexican truckers in 1994, as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement signed by both nations. The pilot program began over a decade late in 2007.

Obama will spend Thursday and Friday in Mexico before traveling to Port of Spain, capital of Trinidad and Tobago, for the fifth Summit of the Americas.

(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2009)