MEXICO CITY - Not a day goes by in Mexico without a corpse turning up -- sometimes beheaded -- as a casualty of the drug war. The government has called out the army to regain control, but officers complain that drug traffickers have superior firepower.

On the U.S. border, authorities in Arizona and other states are no longer surprised to discover tunnels where drug smugglers transport their product northward from Mexico.

Unable to contain a crisis that transcends the border, the U.S. and Mexico are quietly negotiating an unprecedented anti-drug assistance package that probably would provide hundreds of millions of dollars in technology, training and equipment to Mexico, according to U.S. officials who have met with their Mexican counterparts in recent weeks.The aid package will be a top item on the agenda when President Bush meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon at a North American summit in Quebec this month, State Department officials said. A few details have emerged in recent weeks, but negotiations have been shrouded because of the subject's sensitivity on both sides of the border.

The Bush administration is likely to face tough questions on Capitol Hill from lawmakers who fear a repeat of Plan Colombia, a multibillion-dollar aid package aimed at battling cartels in that South American nation but criticized as ineffective.

Calderon, meanwhile, will have to sell the aid package to Mexican citizens, who are usually suspicious of U.S. intervention in their domestic affairs.

But there is a sense that both countries need a new approach as the flow of cocaine and other drugs keeps heading north. And U.S. officials say they have gained more trust in the Mexican government, even as it struggles to confront a wave of drug-related violence that has already claimed nearly 1,500 lives this year.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), one of the lawmakers working to craft the package with Mexican officials, said Calderon is at a critical point in a fight that affects both countries. "If we don't provide him that help, there is this window of opportunity that is going to close. Here we are at that window," Cuellar said.

'Pincer' strategy

The anti-drug package would be the largest since the controversial Plan Colombia, which has allocated more than $5 billion since 2000 to eradicate cocaine and heroin crops and to battle armed rebel groups. Cuellar said the package for Mexico could include a range of components from surveillance equipment to aircraft.

Luis Astorga, an analyst at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said he thinks the U.S. is trying to create a "pincer" action by establishing a presence in both Colombia and Mexico, the jumping-off point for 90 percent of cocaine and the largest share of marijuana that enters the U.S.

State Department officials also traveled to Guatemala last month to push for creation of a regional center for coordinating counternarcotics efforts in Central America, a key corridor for transporting drugs in small planes and speedboats from South America to the U.S.

Ana Maria Salazar, a security analyst in Mexico and one of the architects of Plan Colombia in the Clinton administration, said it isn't fair to compare a Mexico package with Colombia's, where most of the aid went to a military fighting a decades-old guerrilla movement.

Salazar said she expects most of the Mexico package to center on training, intelligence sharing and surveillance equipment, not on expensive vehicles such as helicopters because of the logistical difficulties of deciding which country should control them.

Despite the differences, Salazar said, the controversy behind Plan Colombia might hamper efforts to sell the package on Capitol Hill. "Clearly, Plan Colombia will be popping up a lot in the discussions," she said.

Experts say the plan will almost certainly include cooperation between the armed forces in both countries. That is because Calderon has made the military the linchpin of his strategy, dispatching about 25,000 troops nationwide.

Astorga said that makes some comparisons with Plan Colombia valid, including concerns about the Mexican military violating human rights that mirror allegations against their Colombian counterparts.

Likewise, Astorga said, the U.S. needs to learn one lesson of Plan Colombia, that when authorities cracked down there, drug production spread to other South American nations.

"If you push down in Mexico, it will just go to Central America or elsewhere," he said. "What is certain is that this problem will not go away with a Plan Mexico."

No deal until it's finalThe U.S. already cooperates closely with Mexico on counternarcotics, having trained about 4,500 law-enforcement officers in 2006, including specialized instruction on how to detect clandestine meth laboratories.

While interested in expanding those efforts, a Calderon administration official said the government has been adamant that it would not accept a version of Plan Colombia. But Mexican officials have declined to comment on exactly what the two countries are considering.

"We have been very careful with this. We know that there is no deal until there is a final deal," one Mexican administration official said Wednesday.Likewise, U.S. officials have kept discussions close to the vest. Officials have praised Calderon's tough approach, including the historic extradition to the U.S. of 15 drug lords and other criminals in one day in January. Previously, U.S. officials hesitated even to share intelligence with their Mexican counterparts because of concerns that drug traffickers had infiltrated law enforcement.

"Inasmuch as it is a problem for both countries, the solution lies both with the United States and Mexico," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday. "President Calderon has taken a brave and firm stance in fighting these drug cartels. We want to talk to him about how we can support that effort."

Alejandro Landero, a congressman from Calderon's National Action Party who has met with U.S. officials to discuss anti-drug assistance, said he thinks Calderon's tough stand has created the confidence to take the next step forward with an aid package.

Landero said the Mexican public should not worry about an infusion of U.S. soldiers into Mexico. He said Calderon would not accept that, fearing a backlash from Mexicans who resent U.S. meddling, dating back to a war fought in the 1840s when the U.S. won Mexican territory.

Still, Landero said nationalism must take a back seat to the need to restore security.

"We need to educate people that weapons and drugs are a transnational problem," he said. "It is indispensable that our two countries work together in the most integrated way possible to defeat this threat to society."

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