Several die in Mexico drug violence

Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico, has asked the US for "firm" measures against weapons trafficking, following the deaths of 15 people in drug violence in the country's border areas with the US since Sunday.

The victims included five women and four boys less than 17-years-old, local officials said on Monday.

Rival drug cartels are fighting increasingly bloody battles in the region to control narcotic trafficking to the US.

The boys were shot and killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent city, situated across the border from El Paso in Texas.

Among those killed was a local official in Ejido Reforma, close to the border. The bodies of two half-naked women were found in the suburbs of Chihuahua city.

Mexico says that most of the sophisticated weapons used by drug cartels come from the US.

The government has long called on Washington to impose more controls on weapons sales.

"Given the shared interest in combating criminal activity around the border, President Calderon called on the United States to take strong action to curb the smuggling of weapons from the north to the south," a government statement said on Monday.

On the same day, Calderon met a group of US legislators whom he said were interested to speed up a multi-million-dollar aid package to combat the Mexican drug industry.