Mexico drug clash kills 16 ahead of Obama trip

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Sixteen people died in a shootout in Mexico between soldiers and suspected drug traffickers ahead of a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss the drug war, the defense ministry said on Thursday.

The soldiers were patrolling a remote mountain road in the southern state of Guerrero on Wednesday when they ran into heavily armed drug gangsters who opened fire on them. The soldiers returned fire.

Obama arrived in Mexico City on Thursday for his first visit to Latin America and Mexico's escalating drug war will top the agenda.

Some 6,300 people died last year in drug-related killings in Mexico and the violence has begun to spill over into the United States.

The Obama administration is tightening the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent trafficking of U.S. guns to Mexican cartels and is hoping to send Black Hawk helicopters to help Mexican President Felipe Calderon defeat well-armed cartels.

The defense ministry said a soldier died in the shootout in Guerrero and soldiers confiscated weapons, vehicles and eight grenades. Daily newspaper El Universal said the traffickers were bringing drugs down from the mountains.

The region is known for its crops of marijuana and poppies, which are used to make heroin.

Mexican officials want Washington to reinstate a ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004. Some 90 percent of the weapons used by Mexican gangs including the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels come from the United States, Mexican police say.

(Reporting by Jason Lange and Anahi Rama; editing by Todd Eastham)