Fox signs book deal to publish memoir

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is writing a memoir that will detail his ups and down with world leaders around the globe, from Cuba's Fidel Castro to President Bush, Viking announced Wednesday.

Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, will publish "Revolution of Hope" in October.

The book will be co-written by Fox and his close friend, public relations consultant Rob Allyn, who spent much of December and January working with Fox at his ranch in central Mexico.

"The president's goal is to share his views about issues like immigration, the war in Iraq, globalism, free trade and the moral imperative that world leaders have to heal the global divide between wealthy countries and countries that aspire to prosperity," Allyn said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

He and Viking refused to release how much the book deal was worth, although Fox's literary agent, Jan Miller, told the AP that it was "a VERY nice deal."

Fox left office on Dec. 1 after a constitutionally mandated, single six-year term.

His surprise election in 2000 ended 71 years of one-party rule in Mexico, and the election to replace him was Mexico's closest ever, with the Federal Electoral Tribunal declaring President Felipe Calderon the winner with less than 1 percentage point. Calderon's rival, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, accused Fox of meddling in the election.

Fox has been hailed internationally as Mexico's first truly democratic president, but he was also widely criticized for failing to create jobs and raise wages in Mexico. He was a close friend of Bush, even though relations between the two chilled after the Mexican leader refused to back the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Fox's memoir is part of his effort to build on his legacy as the man who ushered in Mexico's democratic era.

"With this book, we want to spark a revolution of hope, to rekindle the original spirit of the Americas, the New World where immigrants like my grandfathers came to find lands of opportunity," said Fox, the son and grandson of immigrants from the United States, Spain and Germany.