MEXICO CITY : President Felipe Calderon called on all Mexicans to help fight escalating crime, a day after tens of thousands protested against insecurity and impunity across the country.

Violence has spiked across Mexico since Calderon, who took office at the end of 2006, launched a crackdown on drug trafficking and related attacks, including the deployment of more than 36,000 soldiers nationwide.

As Calderon met with protest leaders, police in the southern state of Guerrero reported the discovery of the head of a 50-year-old man in an ice cooler, making a total of 19 headless bodies found since Thursday across the country, and adding to a total of almost 3,000 murders this year.

Angry citizens across the country's 32 states took part in Saturday's "Iluminemos Mexico" or "Let's Illuminate Mexico" protests, dressed in white and carrying candles, to show a united front against against violence.

Some 200,000 protested in Mexico City, police said, while more than 84,000 demonstrated in other towns and cities, according to La Jornada daily.

Calderon said Sunday that the protests "start a new period marked by the great force and energy with which we can face criminality," and called on citizens to help official crime-fighting efforts.

The Mexican leader called for the creation of citizens' committees to denounce violence in all Mexican states and large municipalities, in an address to journalists at his Los Pinos residence.

The groups would "serve to denounce (crimes) and promote a culture of participation and denunciations," Calderon said, after meeting protest organizers from businesses and citizens groups.

Calderon said that most of the proposals they had delivered to him were already included in some 80 promises made at a national security summit 10 days ago.

Those included a purge of corrupt police, and the creation of a national citizen's observatory.

He also admitted authorities had been guilty of "incompetence or outright corruption."

"We are very satisfied with the result of this meeting. We believe it's an important step," said Alberto Nunez, president of one of the citizen groups, Society in Movement.

The organizers later met with the left-wing mayor of Mexico City, Marcelo Ebrard, who promised to provide them with comprehensive information about security forces in the capital, they said.

Mexico has now overtaken Colombia and Iraq with its kidnapping record, a rights group said recently, and most kidnappings are reported in Mexico City, with police or ex-police frequently accused of involvement.

One rights group reported 400 kidnappings so far this year in Mexico, compared with 438 for the whole of last year.

Many believe that two or three more kidnappings occur for each case reported.

The recent kidnapping and assassination of a Mexico City teenager from a wealthy family, in which police were involved, was the trigger for Saturday's protests.

Organizers the demos had hoped to emulate similar mass marches in 1997 and 2004 which forced the government to carry out purges of the notoriously corrupt police and other reforms, provoking short-term improvements.

- AFP/ir