Mexico City ? President Vicente Fox backed away from another showdown with leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday, announcing that he wouldn’t have his annual Independence Day celebration in the capital’s main Zocalo square to avoid protesters.

Lopez Obrador, who claims his narrow loss to conservative Felipe Calderon in July 2 presidential elections was fraudulent, had vowed to upstage Fox by refusing to take part in today’s annual salute of “Viva Mexico!” delivered each year by the president.

On Thursday evening, the leftist politician spoke to thousands of cheering supporters in the plaza, trumpeting the changed venue for the celebration.

His supporters plan to throw their own Independence Day party in the Zocalo, and some had feared clashes if pro-government revelers showed up as well.

Fox will move his ceremony to the small central town of Dolores Hidalgo, 170 miles northwest of Mexico City, where Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo launched the first call for independence from Spain in 1810.