U.S. President George W. Bush named Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as the U.S. point person to work with Mexican officials to clamp down on increasing violence along the U.S.-Mexican border, the White House said on Monday.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan made the announcement after Bush talked by telephone with his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, to discuss immigration and border violence, which has surged in recent months.

"Primarily they talked about the increased border violence and the two leaders talked about the importance of working together to improve our border security and stop the violence," McClellan told reporters.

The leaders decided to pick a high-level contact within each government to work together on the issue and Bush tapped Chertoff for the role, McClellan said...