MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The country's state-run oil company on Monday
                  revoked President Vicente Fox's appointments of four private businessmen to its
                  administration board and replaced them with government officials, local media
                  reported.

                  In an extraordinary session, the board of administration for Petroleos Mexicanos,
                  or Pemex, replaced the businessmen with Assistant Finance Secretary Santiago
                  Levy; Communication Minister Pedro Cerisola; Finance Minister Luis Ernesto
                  Derbez; and the director of the development bank, Bancomext, Jose Luis
                  Romero Hicks.

                  In February, Fox named telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim; the chairman
                  of the world's third-largest cement company, Lorenzo Zambrano; the head of
                  Frito-Lay operations in Latin America, Rogelio Rebolledo; and billionaire
                  businessman Alfonso Romo to the board.

                  The move prompted criticism from opposition legislators who said it was
                  unconstitutional. They suggested that the businessmen serve on a technical
                  advisory group, not as part of the board of administration.

                  That issue will be taken up at the next board meeting in June, local media
                  reported.

                  Fox, who took office December 1, has repeated his campaign pledge not to
                  privatize Pemex, which was created with the 1938 expropriation of the oil
                  industry and is widely considered as a keystone of national sovereignty.

                  However, the president has also said that Pemex -- often criticized as inefficient
                  -- needs an "entrepreneurial vision."

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.