President Feliple Calderon told Vice President Joe Biden on Monday that Mexico wants the United States to do more to halt the flow of weapons and drug money to south of the border.

Calderon's request came during a meeting in the presidential residence in Mexico City, where Biden is on a one-day visit. He heads to Honduras on Tuesday.

Mexico's president "repeated the urgent need to strengthen actions against the trafficking of weapons into our country and money laundering," his office said in a statement.

Mexico says U.S. weapons help fuel drug-related violence that killed at least 47,715 people in Mexico from December 2006 through September 2011.

The statement said the two leaders "reaffirmed the commitment of their government to consolidating shared responsibility, confidence and mutual respect, as the basis of cooperation in all fields."

Biden is also meeting with candidates in Mexico's July 1 elections.

The frontrunner, Enrique Pena Nieto, said he told Biden that his Institutional Revolutionary Party is committed to fight against organized crime, despite recent scandals that have tied party members to drug traffickers.

"The discussion is not whether we should our shouldn't fight against it but what we can do to achieve better results," he told reporters.

Pena Nieto said Biden assured him the U.S will work with and respect whoever is elected president. Mexico cannot reelect its president after a 6-year term.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the candidate of the leftist Democrat Revolution Party, said following his meeting with Biden that he had suggested "a new bilateral relationship with the United States based on cooperation for development."

"The problems with crime and lack of safety have their origins in the lack of welfare, and that is why it is very important that in bilateral relations, priority be given to development," said Lopez Obrador, "so that there are jobs, welfare and we can put the country on the right track and be able to decrease migration."