Mexican president appoints new comptroller general and secretary of agrarian reform

                  MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- Mexican President Vicente Fox appointed
                  replacements Thursday for his comptroller general and to head the
                  federal agrarian reform department.

                  Fox appointed Eduardo Romero to replace outgoing Comptroller General Francisco Barrio, who
                  resigned the post to become a congressional candidate for Fox's National Action Party.

                  Romero previously was second in charge in the comptroller's office.

                  Fox named Florencio Salazar to head the federal agrarian reform department, and appointed the
                  former head of that department, Maria Teresa Herrera, as his new legal adviser.

                  Salazar previously oversaw Fox's Puebla-Panama Plan, a development initiative for southern
                  Mexico that met with stiff criticism from some farm and Indian groups.

                  He later was named as chief negotiator for the Interdepartmental Commission for Conflicts
                  between and within Communities, a group that was formed to work as a liaison between state,
                  federal and local government and civic groups.

                  This is the second change Fox has realized in his 2-year-old administration.

                  The first came in January when Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda resigned to return to
                  academic life. Castaneda's departure was prompted in part by his disappointment at not being
                  able to make progress on a migration accord with the United States.

                  Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.