(PARIS) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy hosts a summit of 43 leaders on Sunday to launch a new Union for the Mediterranean designed to bolster regional cooperation.

The only leader to boycott the summit is Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

Here are a few facts about the new Mediterranean club.

MEMBERS: The 27 countries of the European Union plus Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Monaco and Montenegro. From north Africa, there is Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. Turkey will take part along with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority and Syria.

It represents a combined population of some 765 million people, from the shores of Greenland, to the deserts of Jordan.

GOALS: The Union for the Mediterranean is designed to cement Europe in a partnership with north Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans. It upgrades the EU's Barcelona process, launched in 1995, which had been bogged down by disputes over the Arab-Israeli peace process.

PROJECTS: Regional projects in six areas are under discussion. They are cleaning up pollution in the Mediterranean, building highways and sea routes, disaster response, developing renewable energies, mainly solar power, boosting higher education and research, and an initiative to help foster business.

WORKINGS: The UFM will hold summits every two years, with foreign ministers meeting annually. It will have a co-presidency, to be shared between North and South. Permanent offices are to be set up: a secretariat to manage projects and search for partners, and a joint permanent committee based in Brussels to prepare meetings and react to any unforeseen event that might require a rapid response from the group.

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