Mexican President Vicente Fox appealed to Governor Keating to grant clemency to Mexican citizen Gerardo Valdez.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Despite a personal appeal from Mexican President Vicente Fox, Gov. Frank Keating denied clemency Friday for a Mexican citizen on death row.

The state attorney general is expected to ask for Aug. 21 as the execution date for Gerardo Valdez, who was sentenced to die by injection for a 1989 shooting.

Keating had delayed Valdez' July 19 execution to consider whether Oklahoma authorities violated international law by not allowing Valdez to contact the Mexican consulate after his arrest.

Fox and other Mexican officials also argued that the Mexican government should have had the opportunity to represent Valdez at trial.

Keating said in a letter to Fox on Friday that Valdez was provided an attorney fluent in Spanish and experienced in murder cases.

He conceded that Valdez' right to contact the consulate was violated, but said the violation did not change the circumstances of his conviction or sentence.

Valdez admits killing Juan Barron after Barron made advances toward him in a bar. Valdez took Barron home and shot him twice in the head before burning his body.

``It is important to note that at no time in the trial nor in any subsequent proceedings has Mr. Valdez ever contended that he did not murder Juan Barron,'' Keating wrote.

The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations requires nationals who are arrested be given access to their home country's consulate.

Only four of 123 foreigners who have been on America's death rows were promptly told they could seek help from their consulates, according to death penalty watchdog groups.