By JAN SLIVA
The Associated Press
Sunday, January 14, 2007; 5:54 PM

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- A new far-right faction in the European Parliament will provide a platform for the movement to push some of its most important goals: limiting immigration and resisting the EU's drive for closer integration.

The formation of the Identity, Sovereignty and Tradition group, announced last week, brings together some big names from the fringes of European politics. Most prominent among them is France's Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is again running for president on a nationalist platform that plays on concerns about immigration, globalization and French sovereignty within the European Union.

Another standout in the first far-right faction in the European Parliament in more than a decade, is Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Italy's Fascist dictator.

Across Europe, nationalist parties have made gains in recent years in countries like Austria, Slovakia and Germany. In Belgium, the Flemish Interest Party is the strongest party in the country's Dutch-speaking north.

The far-right has a steady following in France, where Le Pen shocked the country _ and the continent _ when he beat the more mainstream Socialist candidate to move to the second round of the presidential election in 2002. In the current election, he is polling around 12 percent.

One of the group's central goals is to impose strict limits on immigration by playing on fears of job loss and a growing debate about the integration of Muslims, who make up a significant portion of immigrants to Europe, into Western societies.

The faction, to be officially established this week at a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, also seeks to reduce the influence of the EU, including opposing the adoption of a European constitution and any expansion of the bloc.

The faction's formation was only possible with the arrival of several right-wing lawmakers from Romania and Bulgaria, who joined the EU on Jan. 1.

The 20 members from seven countries _ the minimum required to form a group in the 785-seat parliament _ will be led by Bruno Gollnisch, the No. 2 behind Le Pen in France's National Front party.

At a news conference last week, Gollnisch tried to shake the extremist label, portraying his group as a mix of businessmen, doctors, journalists, professors and artists.

"I don't know where the hooligans are," said Gollnisch, who is awaiting a verdict from a French court in a trial over remarks in which he questioned the existence of Nazi gas chambers.

Other EU lawmakers said they would shun the new group and questioned whether it would be able to amass any significant influence.

"The likely formation of an extreme group ... is a sad reflection of the reality of today's Europe," said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of the Greens in the EU assembly. "The extreme right (EU lawmakers) already sit in this house and the fact that they are organized will not give them more influence. They will remain marginal."

But as an official political grouping, rather than a lose alliance of politicians, it will be eligible for more speaking time, more attractive time slots and several hundred thousand dollars in EU funds.