Sarkozy hails new regional union

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By Elizabeth Bryant

MARSEILLE, France | The guest list alone made French President Nicolas Sarkozy's first big event as leader of the European Union a splashy affair.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sat at the same table with Syrian President Bashar Assad, albeit at opposite ends of a rather large table - big enough to accommodate 40 leaders who announced a new political group called "Union for the Mediterranean."

Mr. Olmert and Mr. Assad were too distant to shake hands in the Paris venue and the awkwardness of the guest list helped persuade leaders to forgo the trophy for events of this sort: the group photograph.

Nevertheless, Mr. Sarkozy proclaimed the effort a success.

"It is a great initiative that has been born. We have to complete it now and then take it on further," said Mr. Sarkozy, who championed the new union as France took the helm as president of the European Union for the next six months.

Flanked by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Mr. Sarkozy earlier urged the Mediterranean leaders - representing about 756 million people - to set aside their differences and work toward a common future.

Mr. Sarkozy was forced to settle for an outcome more modest than his original plan to create a regional economic and political group that would overlap and cooperate with the 27-nation European Union.

Instead, leaders agreed to develop solar energy and to battle pollution in the Mediterranean, the backdrop for Marseille - a tattered, teeming, sunwashed port city that embodies far greater ambitions of a new partnership among Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Throughout Maresille, sounds of construction split the air, testament of a massive urban renewal project aimed to bring new trade and investment to this commercial hub in southern France. It hopes to become the headquarters of the Mediterranean union.

Beyond the smiles and backslapping of leaders in Paris, the event has been dogged by criticism, its scope diluted by German objections and its eclectic membership.