WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Clinton will visit Mexico this month to show support for embattled President Felipe Calderon in his war with the drug cartels.

Clinton's March 25-26 trip will include a stop in Monterrey, about 100 miles south of the Rio Grande, where gun battles have raged near the U.S. Consulate.

State Department travel alerts have warned U.S. citizens of "violent attacks" in the border area by drug "cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades."

But "as to a decision on security, we take the secretary where she wants to go," said State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid.

A key focus of Clinton's talks with Calderon and Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa will be the plea from southwestern U.S. governors for National Guard troops on the border to block the flow of drugs north, and guns and money south.

By Richard Sisk, New York DAILY NEWS, March 13th 2009