"France should be a messenger of peace," Sarkozy told a news conference in the presidential palace after talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad. "For that, one must have the courage to talk to everyone."
That is the message France is sending Sunday in launching, to much fanfare, the Union for the Mediterranean, bringing together leaders of 43 nations in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa who have never before sat around a single table.
Overcoming age-old enmities between nations along the Mediterranean rim is a key challenge for the sweeping yet vague project. And Syria is at the heart of many of those tensions.
Sarkozy hosted Assad at the French presidential palace for private talks on Saturday, marking the end to years of chill between their countries. Sarkozy then sat proudly at Assad's side at a news conference, appearing determined to bring Syria back into the international fold.
Sarkozy asked Assad for help in easing the international standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. Assad, in his turn, asked France to contribute efforts toward a peace deal between Syria and Israel. Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, also called for reviving efforts toward an EU cooperation deal with Syria that stalled in 2005.
Sarkozy at times seemed to overestimate his Syrian counterpart's enthusiasm for cooperation.
The French president, after meeting the Syrian and Lebanese leaders, said they had agreed to open embassies in each other's countries for the first time.
Sarkozy praised the "historic" moment - but the Syrian president was more cautious, saying the sides must "define the steps to take to arrive at this stage" of opening embassies.
Still, even talk of embassies marks an important shift in relations between the neighbors and serves as a boost to Sarkozy. Syria and Lebanon have not had full-fledged embassies in each other's countries since Lebanon became independent in 1943 and Syria in 1945.
Syria's relations with Lebanon - and much of the western world - further crumbled in 2005, when former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed. Syria's critics accuse Damascus of having a role in the slaying, a charge Syria denies.
France and the United States led the push for a U.N. tribunal investigating Hariri's killing, and have accused Syria of backing Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Hamas militants in Israel.
Assad on Saturday asked for French participation in eventual Israel-Syrian peace talks. But he threw cold water on speculation of a possible one-on-one meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Assad said indirect Israeli-Syrian talks mediated by Turkey could turn into full-fledged direct negotiations - but suggested little progress was likely before the United States elects a new leader.
Sarkozy acknowledged that his Mediterranean union idea was riddled with potential thorns.
"On the road to peace and confidence, there is still a lot of work to do," Sarkozy said.
But the meeting of these 43 leaders "is already something that marks a very big turning point ... for this region of the world, and for the influence of France, for the influence of Europe and I hope for the good of everyone."
Sarkozy, who wants to create a consequential role for Europe and France in Middle East peace efforts, said he would visit Damascus in September but did not set a date.
It was quite a step for a leader whose predecessor, Jacques Chirac, spurned Syria after the death of Hariri, a friend of French leaders.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said "a wind of hope" was blowing around this weekend's summit, but added that "talks between the Israelis and Palestinians are not part of this wind of hope." He urged the leaders present to press Israel and the Palestinians to push faster and harder for peace.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan all expressed hope separately Saturday that the summit would increase chances for stability in the region.
Sarkozy will co-chair the summit with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the grandiose, glass-domed Grand Palais, with rooms set aside for private talks. The event will be capped Monday with dozens of leaders attending France's national Bastille Day military parade as special guests.
Sarkozy hoped the Mediterranean group would become a pillar of his presidency and France's leadership of the European Union, but it overlaps with expensive European projects in progress.
The new union is to include at least 43 nations, all of which are sending a president or prime minister to the summit. Libya, whose leader Moammar Gadhafi has objected to the whole idea, is sending a minister as observer.
