A federal judge in the United States has approved a forty-million-dollar compensation deal reached in November between one of Austria's main banks -- Bank Austria -- and victims of the Nazi holocaust.

The judge in New York said the settlement was fair and adequate -- though no sum of money could put right the wrongs of the Nazi era.

The agreement releases Bank Austria from all future claims arising from the conduct of its predecessor institutions during the period of Nazi rule.

It also provides for the creation of an archive of bank records including documents relating to Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank. Correspondents say this may open the way for cases against German banks which had refused to open their records.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service