MEXICO CITY British Prime Minister Tony Blair Thursday called for an end of protectionism, and warned that Europe would face disaster if it did not adopt fundamental reforms, notably in the agriculture and energy sectors.

"It would be, in my view, disastrous for Europe if we ended up with fortress Europe," AFP quoted Blair as saying at a news conference in Mexico City, on the last leg of a trip that took him to Jamaica, Brazil and Argentina.

"Europe has got to be competitive not only within Europe but with the rest of the world," Blair said. "And that does mean fundamental changes in areas like agriculture, and within Europe, liberalizing energy and other markets."

In a joint statement they signed after about 90 minutes of talks, Blair and Mexican President Vicente Fox expressed their commitment to global free trade.

"We strongly support the launch of a broad-based new round of global trade negotiations this year," they said in reference to the November meeting of the World Trade Organization in the Qatari capital Doha.

"Our goal is truly open markets that benefit all countries, no matter their size or level of development," they said.

Blair cited Mexico's free trade pact with Europe, and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Canada as prime examples of the benefits of free trade.

Ironically, Mexico is currently embroiled in a trucking dispute with its northern neighbor. Fox warned at the same news conference, that his government would retaliate in kind if U.S. authorities prevent Mexican trucks from crossing the border.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate, disregarding the 1994 NAFTA pact, and defying U.S. President George W. Bush, voted to restrict entry of Mexican trucks into the United States.

During a debate with politicians and academics later in the day, Blair defended globalization, saying it could bring greater justice and equality, provided the wealthier countries "be forced to open their markets to the goods of the poorer countries of the world."

"I think it would be a tragedy if we ended up with a mixture of fear of change -- and I think there's some real misunderstanding about the process of globalization -- if we ended up with protectionism, closing off our economies, being promulgated by people as the answer to social injustice and inequality," he said.

At a welcoming ceremony earlier in the day, Blair praised the democratic changes that have taken place in Mexico since Fox won presidential elections last year, ending 71 years of often authoritarian rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

He also said Mexico now had become "a major political force in the world."

Fox and Blair also said they hoped to strengthen bilateral trade, which already rose dramatically since the signing of a free trade accord between Mexico and the European Union last year.

In 2000, Britain's exports to Mexico amounted to 674 million pounds (966 million dollars), up 15 percent from the previous year, while imports totaled 632 million pounds (906 million dollars), up 54 percent.

Blair, his wife Cherie and the Mexican first couple visited the Templo Mayor Museum, which includes a complex of Aztec ruins in the heart of Mexico City.

The prime minister was to visit a British plant and an oil rig in the southeastern state of Campeche Friday, before heading to Cancun, on Mexico's Caribbean coast, for a week of vacation with his family.

Blair's trip was the first official visit to Mexico by a British prime minister, though Margaret Thatcher attended an international meeting in Cancun in 1980.