The New Nation - Internet Edition

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's move for a union for the Mediterranean countries appears to have strengthened optimism about resolution of the Middle East crisis.

Leaders of 43 nations with nearly 800 million inhabitants inaugurated in Paris a new Union for the Mediterranean on Sunday. It is designed to bring the northern and southern countries that ring the sea closer together through practical projects dealing with the environment, climate, transportation, immigration and policing.

The meeting was also an opportunity for the French President to exercise some highly public Middle East diplomacy, bringing President Bashir al-Assad of Syria out of isolation and hosting a session between the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel.

Sarkozy's brainchild, the original conception of Union for the Mediterranean, was watered down to include all members of the European Union. The enlargement of the group to the north made it easier for Sarkozy to include southern countries, including Syria and Israel, which remain in a formal state of war, and some, like Jordan, which are only notionally Mediterranean. The union has northern and southern co-presidents - Sarkozy and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to start - and will create a permanent secretariat from north and south, though leaders still disagree about where.

Syria also attended the American-led Middle East summit meeting last November in Annapolis, Maryland, but only sent its deputy foreign minister. Since then, however, Israel and Syria have opened serious but indirect peace talks via Turkish mediators, and Assad is eager to rejoin the world.

Sarkozy has claimed a success, with Assad and the new Lebanese president, Michel Suleiman, agreeing to open embassies in each other's countries for the first time. Sarkozy said the Assad agreement "to open diplomatic representation in Lebanon is a historic progress." But Assad was vague about recognising Lebanon, which Syria has dominated for decades and considers a Syrian province.

Just before the union summit meeting began, Sarkozy hosted Abbas and Olmert for another of their regular meetings to try to negotiate the principles of a peace deal. The last meeting was in early June in Jerusalem, so the meeting in Paris was no breakthrough.

Still, both sides had positive things to say, with Olmert saying Israel and the Palestinians "have never been as close to the possibility of an accord as we are today."

Abbas praised Sarkozy as "a great and enduring friend of Palestine and Israel, making you the right man for this role of furthering the peace process."

The Israelis reportedly insist that there is a national consensus supporting the peace effort, but that the Palestinians must give up on certain core principles, like the return of all of East Jerusalem, a complete return to 1967 boundaries and the right of all refugees from the 1948-49 conflict to return to original homes.

The Palestinians say that Israel must live up to its own promises, stopping settlement expansion, and agree to return to roughly 1967 lines.

The Israeli officials said that peace was possible with Syria, but that Assad would have to decide to finish the negotiations in direct talks. On Sunday, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met with both Olmert and Assad and reportedly carried a similar message between them. President Nicolas Sarkozy's initiative is right for just peace in Middle East.