A week before the terrorist attacks, Mex-ico and the United States were the biggest of buddies. On a four-day state visit, President Vicente Fox played basketball with George Bush. Amid effusive pledges of friendship, Mr Bush made promising, if cautious, statements on migration and the drug war, the two top issues on the bilateral agenda. "The United States has no more important relationship in the world than our relationship with Mexico," he said. He recalled that in 1861, Abraham Lincoln had "paused in the darkest hour of this country's history to send a word of hope to Mexico".
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