MEXICO CITY Mexico announced on Friday that it would dismantle traditional barriers against foreign interest in its domestic affairs and would itself play a more active role on the world stage.

"We have nothing to be ashamed of, nor do we have any reason to restrict (foreigners) from the flow of political ideas," said Vicente Fox, a businessman turned politician whose election as president in July ended 71 years of one-party rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Mexican law bans foreigners from taking part in domestic politics, but Fox's comments during a working meeting of some of the country's diplomats promised an era of greater transparency.

Under his predecessor, Ernesto Zedillo, some 400 human rights activists, priests and foreigners were expelled from the strife-torn southern state of Chiapas, home of the Zapatista guerrillas, on the grounds that they were interfering in Mexican affairs.

Zedillo's government viewed foreigners who joined rebel protests as "revolutionary tourists." The Zapatistas rose up in arms against the government on Jan. 1, 1994, in the name of the Rights of Indigenous Communities.

Fox, of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), said any foreigner was welcome to visit any place in Mexico, including Chiapas.

----------Old Isolationism Decried-------

Fox deplored the traditional isolationism of Mexican foreign policy, which rejected what it, saw as foreign interference in its own affairs while shying away from involvement in international issues.

The straight-talking rancher said Mexico had previously defended its policy of nonintervention because it was not a full-fledged democracy.

But the political situation in Mexico has changed, he said.

Just as Fox promised more access to Mexican affairs for foreigners, he pledged to bring Mexico out of the shadows and into the international spotlight.

"We have to go out and take part like a real actor on the world stage," he told the diplomats. Fox said his government's foreign policy would be "more active and dynamic" than that of PRI administrations.

Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda, an outspoken former Marxist academic said on Thursday that the nation would take part in UN peacekeeping operations if asked an unthinkable stance in the past.

Analysts praised the promised shift away from noninterventionism.

"Nonintervention is a fundamental idea but with the passage of time was used to hide many abuses, illegal activities and human rights violations in Mexico," political scientist Lorenzo Meyer said.

Fox's critics charge that he favors business and the United States too much and could endanger national sovereignty.

Fox said on Friday that his government would defend Mexico's sovereignty "intelligently" in the face of globalization and the liberalization of markets.

(Reuter)