Mediterranean, EU nations meet

PARIS – French President Nicolas Sarkozy and more than 40 leaders opened a summit yesterday to launch a new union of Mediterranean nations amid hopes it could bring fresh impetus to Middle East peace efforts.

Flanked by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon, Sarkozy urged the leaders – representing some 756 million people – to set aside their differences and work toward a common future. “The entire world is watching you,” he said.And the question they were asking, he added, was this: “Is this generation of political leaders up to the challenge of peace?” The meeting saw Syrian President Bashar al-Assad return to the international stage, seated alongside Arab leaders at the same table as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Sarkozy said Arab states had made a “gesture of peace” by attending the inaugural summit of the Union for the Mediterranean and that European leaders would “build peace in the Mediterranean, just as yesterday we built peace in Europe.”Leaders meeting under the glass dome of the Grand Palais in Paris were to agree on joint projects, rather than big political goals, with the focus squarely on economic cooperation.But the new union was also seen as a forum that could help promote peace in the Middle East.Mubarak called for Israelis and Palestinians to step up their efforts to reach a peace deal that would pave the way for the creation of a Palestinian sate.Nampa-AFP”The entire world is watching you,” he said.And the question they were asking, he added, was this: “Is this generation of political leaders up to the challenge of peace?” The meeting saw Syrian President Bashar al-Assad return to the international stage, seated alongside Arab leaders at the same table as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Sarkozy said Arab states had made a “gesture of peace” by attending the inaugural summit of the Union for the Mediterranean and that European leaders would “build peace in the Mediterranean, just as yesterday we built peace in Europe.”Leaders meeting under the glass dome of the Grand Palais in Paris were to agree on joint projects, rather than big political goals, with the focus squarely on economic cooperation.But the new union was also seen as a forum that could help promote peace in the Middle East.Mubarak called for Israelis and Palestinians to step up their efforts to reach a peace deal that would pave the way for the creation of a Palestinian sate.Nampa-AFP