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Mexico City's leftist mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, said on Tuesday he would take the army off the streets and find other ways to tackle drug trafficking should he win the 2012 presidential election. Ebrard, who has not formally declared his candidacy for the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, said Mexico was on the wrong track in its spiraling drug war. "Sending the army to do police work is a bad idea," Ebrard said at the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit. "I would substitute the army for a strong state police force with a well-defined plan to invest (in it)," said Ebrard, 50, a former police chief who has pushed policies for his city such as gay marriage and abortion rights. President Felipe Calderon, a conservative, made weakening drug gangs his first priority on taking office in late 2006 and deployed tens of thousands of security forces across Mexico. But grisly drug killings have surged to nearly 23,000 deaths over his term, sullying Mexico's image abroad and worrying foreign investors and tourists. Calderon and his party are sinking in the polls before the 2012 election as the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, that ruled for seven decades until 2000 enjoys a rebound. The PRD, divided since losing the 2006 election to Calderon by a slim and disputed margin, is trailing in third place. Allegations of rights abuses by soldiers are rife as heavily armed troops carry out household raids and set up intimidating military checkpoints. A spate of civilian killings, including infants caught in the cross-fire of shootouts between troops and drug gunmen, has dented support for Calderon's drug fight. Ebrard said having soldiers on the street sent the wrong message and provoked an atmosphere of violence. "If you tell the country it is at war, violence will increase. I would not call for war because war means a suspension of rights." Ebrard said his ideas for an anti-drug agenda would include promoting investment along the U.S.-Mexico border -- where violence has started to scare away businesses -- focusing on manufacturing green technologies. Ebrard has worked to meet environmental goals with city projects to expand public transport, like a rent-a-bicycle system to push pedaling as alternative to gridlocked traffic. LEFT NEEDS TO UNITE The left's chances of winning in 2012 look dim given its deep divisions. The PRD's popularity has been hit hard by a drawn-out squabble to choose the party's leadership. Ebrard has emerged as a new face of Mexico's left after Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador alienated moderate voters with rowdy protests claiming fraud after his 2006 defeat. Painting himself as a more modern leader, Ebrard hinted that if he were to run in 2012, it would be on a more investment-friendly platform, seeking to use free-market profits to invest in social programs. Lopez Obrador has said he wants to run again for president but Ebrard says the left can win only if it unites behind one candidate. "Of course you cannot have two leftist candidates," he said, adding in English: "That is a march of folly."