MEXICO CITY, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Mexico's leading opposition politician
                  completed his first year as mayor of Mexico City on Saturday with mixed
                  reviews for his fight against crime and pollution.

                  A poll published in Reforma daily of 798 Mexico City residents showed 45
                  percent of them thought life in the capital, with a population of nine million,
                  had deteriorated since Cuauhtemoc Cardenas became its first elected mayor
                  in modern times one year ago.

                  Cardenas, a former presidential candidate and the son of a former president,
                  had an approval rating of 5.3 out of 10 in the poll, equivalent to a "fail" grade
                  in Mexico's education system.

                  But his leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) had a higher
                  approval rating-- 35 percent-- than other parties.

                  Cardenas defended his record in an interview published in El Universal daily
                  on Saturday, saying there was a limit to what he could do in a year and on
                  an austerity budget.

                  "We are swimming against the tide," he told El Universal. "If tight budgets
                  were not national policy, if speculation was not favoured over productive
                  investment, if the economy was depolarized, then life in Mexico City would
                  be easier for its government and its inhabitants."

                  Capitalising on unpopular tax hikes proposed in the federal government's
                  1999 budget bill, Cardenas vowed earlier in the week not to raise local
                  taxes and to freeze some public transport fares.

                  "We would all like results in the short term and above all that the situation of
                  each family, of the country, were not as tight," he added.

                  Cardenas, who launched failed presidential bids in 1988 and 1994 and is a
                  former state governor and senator, would not confirm if he would run for
                  president again in the year 2000. But he predicted the PRD-- "whoever its
                  candidate"-- would win.

                  Cardenas' administration claims to have made some headway in fighting the
                  city's high crime rates and overhauling its notoriously corrupt and inefficient
                  police force.

                  But business groups say official figures miss most victims because they do
                  not bother reporting crimes to the police, fearing reprisals from criminals
                  who are often released quickly from jail.

                  The Mexico City regional head of the conservative National Action Party
                  (PAN), Gonzalo Altamirano, accused Cardenas in El Financiero newspaper
                  of failing to live up to campaign pledges but said the mayor had made "an
                  effort worthy of consideration -- to fight corruption at any cost."

                   Copyright 1998 Reuters.