Mayor cleared to seek presidency

Mexico's government has cleared the capital's Mayor of wrongdoing, conceding defeat in a nasty political fight that ended with the Attorney General's resignation and raised criticisms that President Vicente Fox was trying to block his top rival from running for his job.

Prosecutors dropped all charges against Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday. Mr Fox cannot run again and Mr Lopez Obrador is the leading candidate to replace him.

In a news conference yesterday, Mr Lopez Obrador credited his supporters for the prosecutors' decision and said that he would outline his plans on Monday for a likely run for president.

Congress voted last month to strip the Mayor of the immunity from prosecution, allowing prosecutors to press charges that he ignored a judge's order to stop construction of a hospital access road on private land.

Hundreds of thousands of the Mayor's supporters thronged Mexico City's streets on 24 April. Three days later, Mr Fox accepted the surprise resignations of Rafael Macedo de la Concha, the Attorney General, and a deputy who had been in charge of handling the case against Mr Lopez Obrador.