President Barack Obama will use a visit to Mexico this week to discuss a potential rift over the unfettered cross-border access enjoyed by US agents in the war against drugs cartels.

Intent on demonstrating independence from the US, Mexican president Peña Nieto is ending the unprecedented degree of access that US security operatives enjoyed under former president Felipe Calderón.

The White House, briefing reporters ahead of Obama’s two-day trip to Mexico and to a meeting of Central American countries in Costa Rica, played down the effect of new security arrangements being imposed by the Nieto government and said the US was open to discussions. US federal agents were told this week that in future they must work through the Mexican interior ministry, rather than dealing directly with police and intelligence.

Ben Rhodes, the White House’s deputy national security adviser, and Ricardo Zuniga, special assistant to the president and senior director for the western hemisphere, said it was up to Mexico how it dealt with drugs and crime. They said they understood why Nieto, at the start of his government, would want to take a new look at security arrangements.

Rhodes said he was confident that agreement could be reached on co-operation. “Part of the reason we are going to have President Obama sit down with President Nieto early in his term is so we can have a collaborative approach to this,” he said.

At a White House press conference on Tuesday, Obama said of the new security arrangements: “I am not going to yet judge how this will alter the relationship between the United States and Mexico until I’ve heard directly from them what exactly they are trying to accomplish.”

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