Barack Obama leaves for regional summit in Mexico

US President Barack Obama left for Mexico Wednesday morning to participate a summit of North American leaders.

The day-long meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will take place in Toluca, Pena Nieto's hometown. It is expected to focus on how to revitalise the North American Free Trade Agreement, which came into force 20 years ago, Xinhua reported.

The three countries had "a significant interest" in boosting North American competitiveness as a whole, "because where North America is functioning well as a trading bloc, it strengthens our position in the global economy", a White House official said.

Atop the three leaders' agenda would be lifting North American competitiveness, and reducing barriers to "effective and efficient" trade that supports jobs in all three countries, he said.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, security, energy and climate change were also topics of discussion, the official said in a briefing on Obama's trip.