MINISTERS FROM 43 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East meeting in Marseilles have agreed to set up a union for the Mediterranean to boost relations between states in the region.
The secretariat for the new body will be based in Barcelona and will include two senior administrative posts for an Israeli and a Palestinian to help overcome political tensions.
"Everything has been agreed in a new spirit between Arab countries, Israel and European countries. It is an exceptional move," said French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, who negotiated a compromise over administrative, diplomatic and funding issues.
The Union for the Mediterranean is the brainchild of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and will replace an existing EU-Mediterranean partnership, which was known as the Barcelona process.
It will focus on practical projects, with programmes already in place to work on efforts to clean up the Mediterranean, prevent natural disasters, develop new sources of alternative energy; and boost education partnerships between member states.
The new body had a difficult birth with concerns raised by Germany, Turkey and latterly between Arab states and Israel over a range of issues.
German chancellor Angela Merkel opposed Mr Sarkozy's early blueprint which envisaged the new union as an exclusive club, involving only EU member states bordering the Mediterranean. Turkey also had serious reservations about the plan, which it feared Mr Sarkozy wanted to offer as an alternative to EU membership.
And tensions between Israel and Arab states also threatened establishment of the union, with Jerusalem initially opposing moves to let the Arab League play an active role. It finally agreed to Arab League participation in return for being given a prominent position within the new body's bureaucracy, taking one of five deputy secretary general positions on offer.
A Palestinian will also serve as a deputy secretary general and France hopes Tunisia will put forward a candidate to head the small secretariat.