US President Barack Obama has called Turkish and Mexican leaders in an effort to mend ties following the release on WikiLeaks of US diplomatic cables containing negative comments about the countries’ leadership, The New York Times reported.

Obama called Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday to let him know that some of the comments, made public by WikiLeaks, do not reflect the view of the current US government.

He also told Erdogan that the US-Turkish alliance is vital, according to a statement on the website of the Turkish government, and “the two leaders agreed that it will not influence or disrupt the close cooperation between the United States and Turkey,” the official White House statement said.

Earlier, Erdogan reacted furiously to claims relayed in a 2004 diplomatic memo that he had money in Swiss bank accounts. Then, the Turkish PM said that US diplomats should be punished for this “slander.”

However, he said Saturday that the incident will not harm the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

“The fact that information based on gossip has been reflected in official documents, as well as the wording and allegations, is of course disturbing. However we are ready to do together whatever is needed during this process,” Erdogan’s office cited him as telling Obama.

The US President has also talked to Mexican President, Felipe Calderon. According to a White House statement, Obama began by praising Mexico for its work in acting as host to the Cancun conference on climate change that just ended.

The two presidents also talked about “the deplorable actions by WikiLeaks and agreed its irresponsible acts should not distract our two countries from our important cooperation,” the statement said.

WikiLeaks has published cables quoting US diplomats admitting pessimism about the Mexican war on drug lords. Other cables conveyed the US criticism of the Mexican military, police and judiciary and of public corruption in the country in general.

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