López Obrador offers olive branch to Mexican business chiefs

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador met yesterday with the leaders of the nation's business community in an effort to smooth over months of tensions provoked by such controversial government decisions as the cancellation of the $13 billion plan to build a new airport for the capital.

Carlos Slim, Latin America's wealthiest tycoon, and Alberto Bailleres, the mining and retail billionaire, were in the front row of the audience, where Slim appeared to be taking notes.

López Obrador paid homage to the business leaders. The economic growth of the country cannot be achieved solely by the state sector, he said: "It requires the participation of the private sector."