(PARIS) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner hailed Sunday a "time of hope" for Middle East peace ahead of a summit launching the Union for the Mediterranean that counts Arab nations and Israel as members.

France is hosting the founding summit of the 43-nation union between Europe and Mediterranean countries that hopes to bolster regional cooperation despite Middle East hostilities.

"A dream is about to come true," Kouchner told foreign ministers who met ahead of the Paris summit.

The new union is "a collective project of economic development, of peace, of rule of law and solidarity," he said.

While Kouchner recognized that the region was fraught with tensions and economic disparities, he nevertheless said "it is a time of hope".

"A new wind of dialogue is blowing around the Mediterranean," he said.

Kouchner cited efforts to jumpstart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, indirect talks between Syria and Israel and the decision by Syrian and Lebanese presidents to open embassies in each country's capital.

After much energetic lobbying by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, almost all of the Middle East leaders including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have come to Paris to attend the summit.

Only Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi is boycotting the meeting while Jordan's King Abdullah II and King Mohammed IV of Morocco are sending senior representatives.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that while the Union for the Mediterranean was not planning to play a role in Middle East peace negotiations, it could bring new impetus to the process.

"This exercise is not the core of the Middle East peace process, they have other avenues," said Solana.

"But no doubt business of this nature in which people from all parts of the Mediterranean get together, will also be important to create the atmosphere, to give some sense of momentum for the peace process," he said.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the Mediterranean grouping could make a difference over time.

"It is of long-term significance," he said.

"The world is not going to be changed by the meeting today but the entire region will, hopefully, be changed over time by this particular approach."

The summit, starting at 1330 GMT, will be held at the glass-domed Grand Palais that was built for the Paris Exhibition in 1900.

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