As leaders of the group gather for BRICS summit, the absence of China's Xi and Russia's Putin shifts the spotlight to India's Modi and Brazil's Lula.

By Lisandra Paraguassu and Manuela Andreoni RIO DE JANEIRO -Leaders of the growing BRICS group of developing nations met in Brazil on Sunday, calling for reform of traditional Western institutions while presenting the bloc as a defender of multilateral diplomacy in an increasingly fractured world.

Diplomats from the BRICS group of developing nations have agreed on a joint declaration of their leaders at a summit in Rio de Janeiro this week, three people familiar with the talks said on Saturday.