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(Recast) U.S., Mexican Presidents speak by phone amid row over wall

Xinhua, January 28, 2017 Adjust font size:

U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday held an hour-long telephone talk amid the dispute over a border wall.

"With respect to the payment for the border wall, both presidents recognized their clear and very public difference between their stances on this very sensitive issue," the Mexican president's office said in a statement.

"The presidents also agreed for now to not speak publicly about this controversial issue," it added.

"We had a very good call," Trump said in a news conference in Washington. "The border is soft and weak, drugs are pouring in, and I'm not going to let that happen."

"I have great respect for the Mexico. I love the Mexican people," Trump said, while adding that Mexico "has out-negotiated us and beat us to a pulp through our past leaders."

The call came after Pena Nieto cancelled a visit to the U.S. after Trump tweeted that the meeting should be cancelled if Mexico won't pay for a border wall.

On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order on the "immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border" and has maintained that Mexico would ultimately bear the cost of building the wall. Endit