Nazi fund deal close

About 2.3m labour slaves may have survived Nazi concentration camps

By Rob Watson in Washington

A $5bn compensation plan for victims of Nazi labour camps is nearer being finalised.

It follows negotiations in Washington between the US deputy treasury secretary, Stuart Eizenstat, and the German negotiator, Otto Lambsdorff.

In the 1930s and 40s, thousands of people across Europe ended up as slaves or forced labourers for Hitler's mighty industrial machine.

The US is not offering 100% protection from more lawsuits

Last year, the German Government and industry agreed to set up a fund to compensate the victims.

But final implementation of the deal has been delayed because German companies feared continuing lawsuits against them in US courts.

Hurdle overcome

Now after talks in Washington, the US Government has offered a degree of protection against such actions.

President Clinton issued a statement saying he was very pleased that a major hurdle, as he put it, had been overcome.

His negotiator, deputy treasury secretary Stuart Eizenstat, said they were on the verge of an historic agreement.

There was also a positive reaction from the German negotiator, Otto Lambsdorff.

He said the agreement did not provide a 100% guarantee against future lawsuits, but came as close as possible to that under the US legal system.

He said he would now take the agreement back to Germany with a recommendation to parliament that it be accepted and passed into law.

Manfred Gentz, chief financial officer of the German car giant Daimler Chrysler, is fully behind the scheme and he agreed to press more companies to contribute to the compensation fund.