Towns and cities across the country's 32 states took part in Saturday's "Iluminemos Mexico" or "Let's Illuminate Mexico" protests to show a united front against escalating kidnappings and murders.

Violence has spiked since President Felipe 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 across the country.

Some 2,700 people have died so far this year in gangland-style killings -- more than in all of 2007 -- across the country, according to national media, and Mexico has overtaken Colombia and Iraq with its kidnapping record.

Downtown Mexico City sparkled with a sea of twinkling lights as some 200,000 white-clad protesters carried candles in the largest in the wave of nationwide protests against surging crime late Saturday.

The march organizers were to meet Sunday morning with right-wing Calderon, the president's office said. They planned to hand him a document with a string of requests, including proposals collected during the demonstrations.

Police said late Saturday that 200,000 people had attended the Mexico City march, as thousands of others were reported at protests across the country.

Organizers had hoped to emulate a similar march in 2004, when almost half a million protested against kidnappings and insecurity, forcing the government to carry out purges of the notoriously corrupt police and other reforms.

The Reforma daily said Saturday that this week had been the most violent since Calderon launched his crackdown, with 167 murders, including 24 police officers killed and 21 decapitated bodies found.

The recent high-profile kidnapping and assassination of 14-year-old Fernando Marti -- in which police were

involved -- unleashed the most recent public outburst over insecurity and systemic corruption.

Official figures suggest 323 kidnappings were carried out in Mexico in the first half of 2008, while one rights group reported 400 kidnappings so far this year, compared with 438 for the whole of last year.

Many rights groups say two or three more kidnappings are committed for each one reported.

Mexican leaders last week signed a national security pact, the latest such effort in recent years, with a promise to fight insecurity and police corruption.