French president visits Mexico

E. EDUARDO CASTILLO

MEXICO CITY (AP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy was trying to boost his country's business with a visit to Mexico on Monday, but the interest back home seemed to center on a Frenchwoman convicted of kidnapping in Mexico.

Sarkozy briefly raised the case of Florence Cassez with President Felipe Calderon as they toured the Teotihuacan pyramids outside Mexico City on Sunday, Immigration Minister Eric Besson told France's Europe-1 radio.

Besson said Sarkozy would raise the issue again during Monday's formal talks.

French news media have been fascinated by the case of Cassez, who is serving a 60-year sentence for three kidnappings in 2005.

Cassez, 34, has acknowledged that she lived at the ranch where three of the kidnap victims were held, including an 8-year-old girl. But she said she was simply dating a Mexican arrested in the case and did not know the people at the ranch had been kidnapped.

One of the victims, however, has identified Cassez as one of her captors.