Vicente Fox(L) takes President Bush(C) and Canada's Stephen Harper on a March tour of a Mayan pyramid.

    MEXICO CITY, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's President Vicente Fox on Sunday called his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush to express concern over what he feared the "militarization" of the U.S. border.

    Fox called Bush before Washington was set to announce on Monday night the deployment of thousands of the National Guard to the southern border with Mexico and before the U.S. Senate was to debate an anti-immigrant legislation, according to a statement from Fox's office.

    Bush assured Fox that the U.S. is not contemplating a militarization of the border, said the statement.

    "National Guard logistical and administrative support, not army support, of border zone policy is under consideration," said the statement quoted Bush as saying.

    The United States recognized Mexico as "a partner and a friendly nation," Bush told Fox, reiterating his conviction that "migration can only be solved in the framework of complete and comprehensive reform."

    In Washington, the White House said Sunday that the deployment of the National Guard on the U.S. border does not represent the militarization of the border.

    Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said that Bush would clarify the meaning of the deployment in a speech on migration which would also refer to internal control and a guest worker program.

    Critics in the United States have said that the National Guard may not have the capacity to support the 12,000-strong border police for a long time, as the U.S. military is over-stretched by its commitments in Iraq.

    About half of the 11 million undocumented migrants living in the United States are Mexicans, official figures say.

    Every year, about 400,000 Latin Americans cross the 3,200 km U.S.-Mexican border seeking work in the north. Enditem