President Fox hails Mexico's progress since he took office two years ago.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Mexico City, 30 November: President Vicente Fox has said that Mexico "is moving forwards and is doing so assuredly thanks to three central ideas: democratic governance, social inclusion and an economy with a human face [no closing quotation marks as published].

On the eve of his second anniversary in office, the Mexican president said during his radio programme "Fox With You" that Mexico is a different country since that 2 July 2000 (the day of the presidential elections).

Fox, who was sponsored by the National Action Party (PAN), won the last general elections, displacing the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which had been in power for more than 71 years.

Mexico has positioned itself as an "open door democracy" in which all opinions are expressed freely, he said. "We respect a variety of opinions and we are not alarmed by expressions which are in keeping with a new democratic environment," he said

In this respect, Fox said that Mexican society today is "mature and capable of distinguishing between those who are truly committed to democratic change and those who insist on the looking at the present with the eyes of the past".

He pointed out that change has fostered progress towards a Mexico which is fairer and more humane, one which offers more opportunities for all, and this is happening thanks to the active and decisive participation of society. "Therefore, responsible changes are, above all, the citizens' estate."