Obama to meet Mexico's Calderon on Monday

By Caren Bohan and Tomas Sarmiento

WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Barack Obama will meet on Monday with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, marking the incoming U.S. president's first meeting with a foreign leader since he was elected in November.

The talks in Washington are likely to cover issues such as Mexico's increasingly violent drug war, Mexican migration to the United States and the NAFTA trade agreement.

An announcement by Obama's transition team described the meeting as part of a nearly three-decade tradition of U.S. presidents meeting with the leader of the neighboring nation prior to inauguration.

Shortly before his inauguration in January 1993, former President Bill Clinton met with Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

In August 2000, President George W. Bush met in Dallas with Vicente Fox, who was then Mexico's president-elect. Bush at the time was governor of Texas and a presidential candidate.

Calderon, in power since the end of 2006, hopes to discuss security, immigration and economic issues with Obama, said Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa. Espinosa told a news conference that the two would meet at noon (1700 GMT) on Monday.

One of Calderon's priorities is to press Obama to follow through on a U.S. aid program to help Mexico combat the drug trade. The Mexican president is battling drug traffickers blamed for killing 5,650 people last year.

Calderon is also concerned about Obama's campaign promise to renegotiate North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. The deal has greatly expanded Mexican trade with its powerful neighbor since it went into effect in 1994 but is seen by U.S. unions as a cause of job losses in big industrial states like Ohio.