The president's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, has characterized the comment, made May 13 during a visit to Puerto Vallarta, as a misunderstanding. His office refused to comment on Sharpton's demand Thursday.

The closest the administration has come to apologizing was when Assistant Foreign Secretary Patricia Olamendi said Tuesday that "if anyone felt offended by the statement, I offer apologies on behalf of my government." But the next day Aguilar said Olamendi was speaking on behalf of herself - not the government.

"I don't think we've heard a formal apology from him," Sharpton said of Fox. "I think we've heard some regrets. I think we need an unequivocal apology. This was an unequivocal insult."

Jesse Jackson, another civil rights leader, said after meeting with Fox on Wednesday that while he was still angered by the Mexican president's comment, he felt Fox "realizes the harmful effects of it" and was trying to correct his mistake.

The two agreed to work together to bring together blacks and Hispanics, two groups that have clashed in their fight for equal rights and respect within U.S. society.

Sharpton brushed aside that pledge, saying that before seeking coalitions between minority groups in the United States, he wanted to have "a real discussion about race" with Fox.

"Things have been boiling under the surface for awhile and they need to be discussed, and frankly he can do that," he said.

He said illegal migrants in the United States - millions of whom are Mexican - are working for low wages and no benefits, taking jobs from other minority groups that are in the United States legally.

"We also need to deal with the fact that there has been an inordinate amount of tension where people have come across the border for almost slave wages, competing with Latinos and blacks," Sharpton said. "It's almost like a 21st century slave trade."

Fox made the comment in defense of Mexican migrants after President Bush signed a bill making it harder for illegal migrants to get U.S. driver's licenses and clearing the way to extend walls along the California-Mexico border.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher initially criticized Fox's comment, saying Monday it was "very insensitive and inappropriate." But White House press secretary Scott McClellan later said Fox had "addressed the matter."

© 2005 The Associated Press

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