MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico's top security official says far fewer people have disappeared during Mexico's drug war than were feared when the government released a list of about 26,000 cases.

Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong says federal and state governments are working to weed out people who have been located.

He says the new list will be released with a few months and "will be much lower."

Osorio Chong said Friday that many of those included on the original list of 26,121 released earlier this year had left home for personal reasons or emigrated. The list compiled by the previous administration covers 2006 to 2102.

The issue has become a sensitive one in Mexico, where kidnappings are rife and thousands of people say their relatives have been abducted by drug gangs.