Relaunching the Puebla Panama Plan (PPP) and building a multi-million dollar oil refinery in 2008 are the main topics for a two-day summit in the Mexican city Campeche, officials said on Monday.

The PPP was launched by Mexico in 2001 in El Salvador's capital San Salvador and aims to overcome poverty through economic development.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon was scheduled to host a dinner on Monday night for leaders of the PPP meeting, including the presidents of Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Belize and Nicaragua, according to Calderon's office.

On Tuesday, the heads of state and government are expected to publish a joint declaration at the summit, where they will discuss the strategic development for Central America's transformation and modernization in the 21st century, especially eight initiatives that focus on the integral development of the population covered by the PPP.

The summit is also set to review the institutional structure of the region's social and economic development and discuss the installation of an oil refinery for the region in the first half of 2008.

The oil refinery for the Mesoamerican region, which includes Mexico, Central America and Colombia, is a Mexican proposal to supply oil to the Central American region at low prices. In August 2006, Mexico offered to supply the refinery with a daily 240,000 barrels of crude oil.

With an investment of at least 8 million dollars, the project is expected to employ some 15,000 workers.

Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica are already bidding to host the refinery.

Other participants of the Campeche meeting include the Inter-American Development Bank, the Central American Economic Integration Bank, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and the Central American Integration System.

Source: Xinhua