nice logo, at least

Today sees the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) meeting in Brasilia, and the 12 heads of state attending will be hoping and praying that the net return from the show is zero, because that's about the best result available.

The agenda is to formally sign up to the new body that is seen as a latino version of the European Union, but the underlying atmosphere was set earlier this week by Colombia, who were due to take the revolving post of president of UNASUR this time round but have declined the role, citing the atmosphere between itself and its neighbours and saying words to the effect of "We'd be pretty stupid to do this right now Lula...sorry and all that." The word "stillborn" immediately springs to mind.

This meeting will also see Brazil formally proposing the South American Defence Council, ostensibly a joint defence force along the lines of the UN task forces, but originally conceived in Venezuela as a counterweight to US military influence. That means that, however good the idea may seem in its present form, the initiative is doomed to failure.

So what we're left with is a photo opportunity or two, a signing ceremony and hopefully not many comments from Chavez, or not many words exchanged between Correa and Uribe, or no more spats between Garica and Morales, or not many questions aimed at Lula about how his Environment minister suddenly resigned last week while saying she was "fed up with the lack of gov't support".

Unions? These people should look up the definition of the word before signing any pieces of paper today.