Mexico PRI Senator eyes energy reform conditions

MEXICO CITY, Jan 28 (Reuters) - An energy reform proposal being discussed by Mexican lawmakers needs to include measures to fight monopolies, a senior opposition senator said in an interview published on Monday.

President Felipe Calderon wants to boost private investment in parts of Mexico's struggling state-run energy sector, but his conservative party lacks a majority in Congress.

The key opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has said it is open to any of Calderon's ideas to revitalize state-run oil monopoly Pemex.

But a senior lawmaker said the legislation should be part of a wider deal to increase economic competitiveness.

"The modernization (of Pemex) should be sent in a package that includes measures to improve competition," Manlio Beltrones, who heads the PRI in the Senate, said in an interview with Excelsior newspaper.

He said the package should include measures to "keep monopolies from forming."

A senior Senator from Calderon's National Action Party, or PAN, told Reuters last week that a wider law on monopolies could be debated after an energy law. Senators aim to have a draft energy law ready for debate by April. (Reporting by Jason Lange; editing by Jim Marshall)