South American leaders have launched a regional integration pact to create a political and economic bloc modelled on the European Union.
The new South American Community of Nations was launched yesterday at a summit in the Peruvian city of Cuzco. However, only half the future bloc's 12 presidents turned up to sign the pact.
The leaders of Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay stayed away from the summit in Peru's ancient Inca capital, Cuzco, while the Colombian and Bolivian presidents, who did attend, skipped the signing ceremony.
That left Brazilian President Mr Lula and the leaders of Chile, Venezuela and Peru - plus those of Suriname and Guyana who will join the South American Community of Nations later.
Foreign ministers from the other countries signed. Creation of the bloc will have little immediate impact for its 360 million people, but officials say greater integration will give South American more political and trade clout.
Brazil's President Mr Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country is the region's economic powerhouse, vowed integration would go beyond rhetoric and translate into concrete gains, like a $700 million highway linking the Atlantic and Pacific that Brazil and Peru plan to build.
"If in the past, geography divided us, today it unites us," he said. "What we have done today is no small thing."
Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo told reporters the European Union's experience had proved integration took time, but he proclaimed, "Sooner rather than later we will have a single currency, a single passport."
The bloc will have a combined gross domestic product of over $970 billion, exports of $188 billion, and big gas, oil and mineral wealth, making it a potential trade powerhouse.