Caracas, Dec 7 (IPS) - The South American community that will be born this week in Peru -- the most ambitious integration initiative in the region's history -- will mark its debut with 32 physical infrastructure projects with a combined cost of over 4.2 billion dollars, to be carried out over the next five years.

The new bloc will comprise the four Southern Common Market (Mercosur) countries, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, and the members of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, along with Chile, Guyana and Suriname.

"We had always foreseen that this South American community would be formed through the gradual convergence of the Andean group and Mercosur," CAN secretary-general Allan Wagner told IPS.

"We cannot begin from square one when we already have foundations that can be built upon," he added.

The presidents of the South American countries will sign the new community's founding document during a two-day summit to be held in the southern Peruvian cities of Cusco, on Wednesday, and Ayacucho, on Thursday.

In deciding to take "the most important step ever towards the integration of the region," as it was described by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the South American nations debated over whether to create a new institutional structure or combine the regional integration structures that already exist.

In the end, they decided upon the latter, and agreed that the new community would be built upon three pillars: the coordination of common policies regarding multilateral organisations, the integration of physical infrastructure, and convergence between the CAN and Mercosur.

"Our ultimate goal, which can hopefully be reached, in time, is the United States of South America," said Wagner.

He recognised, however, that the merging of the subregional groups is still a distant objective, and unlikely to be attained even in the medium term.

"What we are working on now is a process of convergence between the two blocs, plus the other three countries," he said.

The creation of a South American union or community has been a goal pursued by Brazil for many years, particularly in sectors like the Brazilian Institute of Foreign Relations (IBRI), a branch of the Foreign Ministry.

Several years ago, Brazil abandoned the idea of becoming a world power in its own right and chose instead to put its efforts behind working with its neighbours to strengthen Mercosur.

In 2000, the country's president at the time, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, used the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the "discovery" of Brazil by Pedro Alvares Cabral to bring together the 12 leaders of the region and propose the establishment of what he called a South American Union. Lula continued to pursue this objective when he took over the presidency in January 2003.

The South American community will constitute an enormous market, encompassing 17 million square kilometres in territory and 350 million consumers, with a combined gross domestic product of 1.2 trillion dollars and 190 billion dollars in annual exports.

The region is home to enough oil, gas and mineral reserves to supply its industries for over a century, as well as eight million square kilometres of forests and 27 percent of the world's freshwater reserves.

It links the planet's two largest oceans, the Pacific and Atlantic, and could become a world leader in biodiversity and food production.

"Nevertheless, and despite the underlying economic interest, what has been most decisive in this regional process is political will, which is what must take precedence," said Roberto Guarnieri of Venezuela, the permanent secretary of the Caracas-based Latin American Economic System (SELA), made up of 25 Latin American and Caribbean states.

Guarnieri told IPS that the bloc being created this week in Peru "will need a body responsible for developing programmes and proposals and monitoring progress from a technical and administrative point of view, like the executive commission of the European Union, and we have proposed that SELA serve as its basis."

The Brazilian government and former Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde (2002-2003), the president of the Mercosur Commission of Permanent Representatives and a fervent promoter of the South American project, initially proposed the establishment of a separate structure for the South American community, but the idea has gradually lost steam at the preparatory meetings.

In any event, some sort of follow-up mechanism will be needed to monitor the implementation of the initiatives adopted in Cusco, particularly with regard to the proposed infrastructure projects.

Wagner noted that there are a total of 350 projects -- encompassing highways, bridges, railways, ports, airports and telecommunications -- aimed at reinforcing the ten integration "hubs" established by the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA).

A study conducted by the IBRI in 2000 revealed that at least half of these projects directly involve Brazil, and would cost at least 200 billion dollars to carry out.

Now, 32 of the IIRSA projects have been chosen as one of the first initiatives to be jointly undertaken by the new South American community. The bloc will seek multilateral financing to cover the more than 4.2 billion dollars needed for their execution.

"These are anchor projects that will be carried out over five years. They were chosen because they do not serve merely as corridors between countries and zones, but also as a means of promoting development in border regions, which have traditionally been the poorest and most marginalised in our countries," said Wagner.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim recently stated that the difference between North America and South America is largely the result of infrastructure.

"North America has been an integrated continent since the 19th century. We have only recently begun this process ourselves. The Atlantic-Pacific gap, which doesn't exist in North America, is dramatic in South America, because of the need to cross the Andes or the Amazon," he explained.

The most energetic promoters of the South American community have been Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. In fact, leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has called for everything from integrating the region's oil industries to creating a South Atlantic military alliance.

Less enthusiastic support has come from Chile, Colombia and Uruguay, although the latter should become more strongly inclined towards regional integration when leftist president-elect Tabaré Vázquez takes over from conservative President Jorge Batlle in March.

In the meantime, Colombia has acted as a political and trade ally of Washington in the region, while Chile has been cautious.

"We would like nothing better than to move towards South American integration, but the worst thing we could do would be to ask a child, who has just learned to walk, to run a marathon," said Osvaldo Rosales, director of international economic relations at the Chilean Foreign Ministry.

Another concern raised has been whether the creation of a South American economic and political union will overshadow relations with the rest of Latin America.

Wagner, for one, does not believe there is any basis for this fear.

"Mexico and the Central American countries are in the process of becoming associate members of Mercosur," he noted, adding that the last Andean Community presidential summit in July called for a similar association with Mexico and Central America.

"Just as Mexico decided to join the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Canada, as a means of meeting its needs, there is no reason to think that the promotion of a South American union will mean turning our backs on Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean," said Wagner.

In his opinion, "we are reviving the idea of an integrated Latin America, after this objective became fragmented into various regional processes 30 years ago. Now we are going back to that original vision, through the convergence of subregional structures and within the context of globalisation."