BARCELONA: It is billed as a summit that will move the world, but the world’s leaders are not invited.

The idea? Five million people from across the globe meet in a huge new complex — sustainably developed — and discuss the world’s problems.

After 141 days of talks, as well as music, dance and other cultural events, ideas about how to make the world a better place will be presented to leaders in something like a Barcelona Declaration.

More than two billion euros are being poured into Barcelona, Spain’s ever-developing second city, to build the infrastructure for the gathering. Organizers hope the event, called Forum Barcelona 2004, will become as much as a feature on the international calendar as the Olympic Games.

“This is a gathering of civil society, of citizens, not of government...It’s an Expo of values,” said Forum director general Jordi Oliveras Coll, comparing the event to the high-profile World Expo fairs.

Organizers plan to set up a foundation in the next few months to choose a different city to host a Forum every four years.

The Forum’s debates, conferences, shows and exhibitions are all based around three themes: sustainable development, cultural diversity and conditions for peace.

At the heart of the new complex is a vast Plaza — second in size only to China’s Tiananmen Square according to organizers — where a vast market, with produce from around the world, will be held. The complex also hosts a Speakers’ Corner, modelled on the famous spot in London’s Hyde Park.

Despite the ban on political figures, several are set to attend, including former US president Bill Clinton.

An exception has been made for present leaders to allow Brazil’s left-of-centre President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva to be invited.

Nobel prize-winning author Jose Saramago, Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, film actress Angelina Jolie and singers Bono and Sting are also on the list, organizers said.

The United Nations organization for culture and education UNESCO is supporting the event.

TRENDY BUILDING: For the organizers, what the event will do for Barcelona — arch rival of Madrid and capital of a fiercely nationalistic region — is just as important as the Forum itself.