http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20 ... 02,00.html

THE Mexican government plans to protest to US President George W. Bush over a fence that is to be built along the countries' border, aimed at discouraging illegal migration to the United States, foreign ministry sources said today.

The US Congress yesterday approved a bill to build a fence along more than a third of the US-Mexican border.

Mr Bush was expected to sign the bill into law soon.

The House of Representatives passed the same bill on September 14, calling for the 1200km fence.

The fence, to be partly financed from the budget of the Homeland Security Department, was one of the components of a comprehensive immigration reform plan debated by Congress earlier this year.

The plan triggered the most massive demonstrations by immigrants in US history.

Mexico's foreign ministry ``will send a note to the US government to voice its concern at the building of the wall; that has been the position of Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, and that remains the position,'' the sources said.

It will address ``respectfully the reasons why the Mexican government does not believe this is the correct answer, and that it could become an insult between nations,'' the source added.

The current bill falls far short of ambitious reform goals set forth by the president, who, in addition to border security measures, wanted to offer legalisation to some of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States and create a system that would regulate the flow of illegal immigrants.

"We can build the tallest fence in the world, and it won't fix our broken immigration system,'' Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement. "Nor will it strengthen security at our borders. To do that, we need the comprehensive reform that the Senate passed earlier this year.''

Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist said the measure calling for the fence was just the first step on the way toward comprehensive immigration reform.