MEXICO CITY, March 8 (Reuters) - Mexico should hand down life sentences to people guilty of kidnapping women, children and the elderly, President Felipe Calderon said on Thursday.

Calderon, who has made a crackdown on rampant crime his top priority since taking office in December, said he would send a bill to Congress proposing maximum sentences be raised from their current 30 years.

"Whoever choses this crime has no place in Mexico," he said at a meeting to mark international women's day. "We will not tolerate freedom or the rule of law being violated," he said.

Mexico has one of the world's highest kidnapping rates, with gangs, often with help from police, snatching members of the middle-class as well as the rich.

Some gangs chop off victims' ears or fingers, then post the body parts to family members to encourage them to pay. Calderon said the bill also would also propose giving life sentences to kidnappers who mutilated or murdered their victims.

The proposal will have to be approved by Congress before passing into law and would require changes to local penal codes to be applicable in all states.

As part of his anti-crime drive Calderon has sent thousands of troops to combat powerful drug cartels in flash points like Pacific resort Acapulco and U.S.-border city Tijuana.

He is also trying to impose order on Mexico's chaotic and corrupt police forces by merging several agencies and introducing a central crime database.

However, hundreds of murders have been attributed to drug crime so far this year, similar to the same month last year.

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