Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said he would meet with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Nov. 12 to "outline a timetable and very concrete actions" regarding migration policies.

Derbez told reporters the meeting was arranged when President Vicente Fox and his U.S. counterpart, George W. Bush, met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok.

There was no breakthrough in that meeting. But Derbez said it served to underscore that talks on immigration face new challenges after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States.

"They talked about first operating within a different type of an agreement, not to talk about a general accord but to talk about putting the puzzle together step by step, creating the necessary structure so that we can solve the problems little by little," he said.

Derbez said Bush also invited Fox to visit his Crawford, Texas, ranch soon, although no date was set.

For his part, Interior Minister Santiago Creel qualified as "good news" the inclusion of the migration issue in the agenda of the upcoming meeting.

At the meeting, Creel said, Mexico plans to advocate the normalization of the migration status of nearly 4 million undocumented Mexicans living in the United States.

The Fox administration will also urge Washington to increase the number of visas granted to Mexican nationals, boost guest worker programs and bolster protection for the human rights of undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

"They did not talk about timetables," U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told a news conference. She said, though, that the presidents remain committed "to immigration policies that are humane, immigration policies that take account of the situation of Mexican workers."

"The immigration issues are difficult and sensitive," Rice said, pointing to the necessity of balancing security concerns with the two countries' economic needs.

Rice talked about the difficult task of trying "to match willing (Mexican) workers and willing (U.S.) employers. But they recognize that these are hard issues and they're going to work through them in a way that makes sense for both countries ... They want to get it right."

During his presidential campaign, Bush emphasized his good relationship with Mexico and pledged to move quickly to address the immigration issue, especially in regard to the millions of undocumented Mexican immigrants in the United States.

But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks put a brake on Bush's plans.

There are currently several bills in the U.S. Congress to address the problem, including an initiative sponsored by Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) that would establish a guest worker program and two types of visas to help immigrants obtain legal residency.