PARIS, July 13, 2008 (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday opened a Paris summit of some 40 leaders to launch a new union between Europe and Mediterranean countries.

Heads of state and government from the 27 EU nations and an arc of countries from north Africa to the Balkans -- representing some 756 million people -- are to inaugurate the new forum at the Grand Palais on Paris' Champs Elysees.