Clinton: US shares blame on drugs
 Hillary Clinton will meet Mexico's president and foreign minister |
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the US must take part of the blame for drug-related violence in Mexico on a visit to the country.
She said the US appetite for drugs and inability to stop arms crossing the border were helping fuel violence.
Mrs Clinton's visit comes a day after the Obama administration announced new measures to boost border security.
Some 8,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico over the past two years.
Trade and immigration issues are also expected to be high on Mrs Clinton's agenda.
'Co-responsibility'
"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade," Mrs Clinton said upon arrival in Mexico.
 |  We need to do more to make sure that illegal guns and cash aren't flowing back to the cartels  US President Barack Obama  |
"Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.
"I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility."
Mexico and the US are currently locked in a trade dispute, after the US government stopped a pilot scheme earlier this month which allowed Mexican trucks to use roads in the US.
Mexico said the decision violated a free-trade deal between the countries and retaliated by imposing higher tariffs on some 90 American exports.
In signs of movement on the issue, US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and other Obama administration officials have reportedly been working on plans to revive the scheme.
Mexico's Economy Minister Gerardo Ruiz Mateos said on Tuesday that his country would lift its tariffs as soon as the US returned to its "agreed commitments" on access for its trucks.
Illegal guns
But it is the drugs-related violence in Mexico that is likely to be the focus of Mrs Clinton's discussions.
On Tuesday, the White House unveiled a $700m (
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