Leaders of EU and Mediterranean rim countries are gathering in Paris to launch a Union for the Mediterranean.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is hosting leaders from 42 nations, to discuss issues including regional unrest, immigration and pollution.
France says the new union could send a "wind of hope" through the region.
Progress has already been made. Mr Sarkozy announced on Saturday that Syria and Lebanon had agreed to set up embassies in each other's capitals.
Lebanon and Syria have not had fully-fledged embassies in each other's countries since both gained independence from colonial rule in the 1940s. Relations between the two have been strained since Lebanon's former PM Rafik Hariri was assassinated in 2005 - an attack which Lebanon claims Syria was involved in.
But after Mr Sarkozy held talks with Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman and then Syria's leader Bashar Assad, he announced the establishment of embassies and hailed the moment as an "historic step forward".
FROM-BBC NEWS
