Mexico demands action on border vigilantes

The Mexican foreign minister, Rosario Green, has urged the United States to protect illegal Mexican immigrants from attack by American vigilantes.

Her call came during a meeting in Washington with the American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright.

As the talks took place, officials said a third immigrant had been killed on farmland north of the Mexican border in Texas -- the latest in a series of shootings and beatings carried out by US ranchers in recent months.

Afterwards, both countries condemned the actions of the vigilantes and warned that they would punish people found breaking the law on both sides of the border. Correspondents say an estimated nine-million Mexicans live in the United States, many of whom enter illegally through desert mountain ranges that lie along the three-thousand kilometre border.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service