REFILE-Mexican lawmakers agree to graft probe on minister

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MEXICO CITY, March 13 (Reuters) - Opposition lawmakers in Mexico agreed on Thursday to set up a commission to investigate graft allegations that could bring down President Felipe Calderon's interior minister and close ally.

A majority of party leaders voted in favor of a two-month probe into oil sector contracts signed over by Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino to a family business when he was an official in the previous government.

A rising star in the conservative government and seen as Calderon's right-hand man, Mourino was made interior minister in January to help push economic reforms, including a politically thorny energy law, through a divided Congress.

But accusations that he used his influence in government energy posts to benefit his family's gasoline business sparked calls from left-wingers this week for his resignation.

"We will get to the bottom of things," deputy Carlos Puente of the Green Party, which will lead the committee, told reporters. "This legislature will not serve as a cover-up for anyone and we are committed to a full investigation."

The nine-member commission will not go ahead until it has been approved by the lower house of Congress.

Several leftist parties voted against the make-up of the commission on Thursday saying its scope was too limited.

The allegations against Mourino have been led by firebrand leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who says his 2006 election defeat to Calderon was rigged and who staunchly opposes the entry of private capital into the state-controlled oil sector.