BY RICARDO SANDOVAL
 Herald Foreign Staff

 OAXACA, Mexico -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright praised the
 Mexican government Sunday for recent efforts to fight illegal drug trafficking -- a
 strong sign that the Clinton administration will once again push for certification of
 Mexico as a good ally in the war on drugs.

 Certification would head off potential U.S. economic sanctions against Mexico but
 would be sure to anger some U.S. law enforcement officials and their allies in
 Congress, who believe that Mexico's anti-drug agencies are riddled with corruption
 and largely ineffective.

 Calling her meeting with Mexican Foreign Secretary Rosario Green ``a turning
 point'' in U.S.-Mexican relations, Albright lauded Mexico's efforts to strengthen its
 anti-drug agencies. She and Green said both governments were cooperating well
 in the effort to keep drugs from reaching American cities.

 Any criticism Albright had was aimed at unnamed people who she said ``wish to
 undermine'' the cooperative drug effort led by Clinton and Mexican President
 Ernesto Zedillo.

 Each year, as the U.S. President and Congress start grading countries on their
 work against illegal drugs, sources within U.S. law enforcement agencies and
 Congress tell reporters of spectacular failures -- due to corruption and ineptness --
 within Mexico's anti-drug agencies.

 This spring may bring more of the same, said U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey
 Davidow, but he said it won't obscure improvement in cooperative drug police work
 in the last year between the two countries.

 ``The fact that there are 20 tons of cocaine not on our streets [in the past year] is
 because of that increased cooperation,'' Davidow said, referring to two big cocaine
 busts in the Pacific Ocean by the Mexican navy last year -- operations guided by
 U.S. counternarcotics intelligence.

 Analysts say Mexico supplies at least 300 tons of cocaine each year to
 American users, most of it produced in Colombia.

 Such trafficking and corruption irk some American legislators, who want to block
 Clinton's drug certification of Mexico.

 Albright's talks with Green in this colonial city, 280 miles southeast of Mexico
 City, wrapped up a three-day swing through Latin America that started in
 Colombia and included a daylong meeting with Panamanian President Mireya
 Moscoso.
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald