Plenary session of the 35th Mercosur summit in San Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina, 30 Jun 2008

Leaders of South America's 10-member trade bloc known as Mercosur begin their two-day summit in Argentina Monday.

Themeeting in Tucuman is expected to focus on the world's food crisis,regional integration, and Europe's controversial new immigrationpolicies.

Earlier this month, European Union ministers agreed ona set of measures for expelling undocumented migrants. The new lawsallow EU nations to detain illegal immigrants up to 18 months beforedeporting them to their home countries.

Brazil's President LuizInacio Lula da Silva has lashed out at the new measures, saying thatxenophobia and discrimination are on the rise in Europe, as workersfear losing their jobs to immigrants.

Mercosur was created in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, signed by the heads of state of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Bolivia,Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru were later admitted as associatemembers, and Venezuela expects to join in as a full member. Mercosuris headquartered in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP.