Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday advised El Salvadorean leaders to forcefully go after two rival gangs in order to quell violence and restore order in the increasingly unstable Central American country, Reuters reported.

The one-time Republican presidential candidate spoke to local business leaders at a conference in San Salvador, the capital of the nation of 6.3 million.

"The biggest problem in New York was the mafia and then drug traffickers, but here it's two major gangs, and these two gangs need to be annihilated," said Giuliani, who led America's largest city from 1994 to 2001.

Given crime statistics, El Salvadoran authorities should focus their efforts on the capital city, he counseled, according to La Página, a local newspaper.

"If 70 percent of crime occurs in San Salvador, the police have to be in San Salvador," the former mayor said. "There are areas in this city where the gangs are more in control than the authorities."

As for practical measures, Giuliani recommended the implementation of a bonus system that allows police officers to be rewarded for good job performance, as well as for a general reduction of crime in the areas they patrol.

"The government's task is to restore confidence," he said, "and, bit by bit, the people will contribute more."

El Salvador's homicide rate had risen to 481 in March, which turned the month into the country's deadliest in more than a decade, according to The Associated Press.

The surge of violence may be due to the collapse of a gang truce, and both gang-on-gang violence and attacks on police and common citizens are spiking in what authorities say is an attempt by criminals to put pressure on the government.

President Salvador Sánchez Cerén has refused to negotiate with the gangs, which may have as many as 70,000 members. The former guerilla fighter, who took office in June, upped the ante earlier this year by sending gang leaders to maximum-security prisons and encouraging police to use their weapons without fear in the line of duty or in defense of lives.