It was Tex-Mex on the menu and opera and fireworks after dinner when Mexico's President, Mr Vicente Fox, came to dinner at the White House with his pal "Jorge". They started with Maryland crab and porizo pozole, followed by pepita-crusted bison with poblano whipped potatoes and fava bean and chanterelle ragout . . .
Yesterday, continuing a state visit full of pomp and ceremony and professions of personal friendship, Mr Fox again pressed the US to speed work on an immigration agreement that he hoped would legalise up to three million undocumented Mexican workers here.
In a speech to a joint session of Congress he made it clear that he would like to see a framework deal done by the end of the year.
"What I expect is that for every single Mexican that is in the US that he would have legal status, that he would not have to be hiding away, that he would have this regularisation or advance to a legal status," he told journalists.
But, despite early sympathy from President Bush, the Republican House Speaker, Mr Denis Hastert, has made clear there would be vigorous opposition to any amnesty deal involving those who entered the US illegally, although they are willing to extend some form of temporary guest worker status to undocumented aliens. That makes the ambitious Mexican schedule most unlikely to succeed.
Mr Fox, greeted by a prolonged standing ovation, spoke of his commitment to reform in Mexico and argued that such changes meant the "time has now come for Mexico and the US to trust each other . . . Give trust a chance". Trust, he said, was the only basis on which they could deal with all the challenges they faced.
Mr Fox also spoke of the need for both countries to expand their role in consolidating democracy in the southern hemisphere, signalling again his country's commitment to playing a new role on the international stage.
Domestically, the Bush administration sees the Fox visit as a huge political opportunity to extend weak Republican support among the 20 million legal Mexican immigrants. Since 1990, the US-Hispanic population has risen by 58 per cent.
AFP adds: Mr Bush yesterday named a special envoy to lead a US peace initiative aimed at ending the "brutal and shameful" civil war in Sudan, acknowledging he had "no illusions" of guaranteed success.
Mr Bush named the former senator, Mr John Danforth, in the effort to end 18 years of conflict over autonomy that have left more than 1.8 million dead, mostly in the southern part of the oil-rich African nation.
