U.S. ups border gun checks as Mexico drug deaths jump

Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:24pm EST

By Catherine Bremer

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey promised Mexico tougher controls on guns flowing illegally over the border on Wednesday as Mexican drug cartels have slain 115 people already this month.

Visiting Mexican counterpart Eduardo Medina Mora in his first foreign visit since taking office in November, Mukasey said the spurt in violence in the first two weeks of 2008 was a signal to keep up the pressure on what he called "drug terrorists".

Mexico, which has been fighting a nationwide war on powerful cartels for the past year, has urged its northern neighbor to stem the flood of U.S. firearms, grenades and military weapons that wind up in the hands of Mexican gangs.

"In a perverse kind of way the level of violence suggests a level of success in dealing with the drug problem," Mukasey told a round-table with foreign media in Mexico City.