September 28, 1999
Web posted at: 3:07 a.m. EDT (0707 GMT)

WASHINGTON -- U.S. and German officials working on a plan to compensate victims of slave labor in the World War II will meet with other groups in Washington next Wednesday and Thursday.

The officials made progress on Tuesday as they sought ways to ensure that firms paying into a compensation fund will not be sued again, German officials said.

"We took a few good steps forward on the issue of legal security, so-called "legal closure", Count Otto Lambsdorff, Germany's chief negotiator in talks with the United States and victims' groups said on Tuesday.

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He had earlier met Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eizenstat, who heads U.S. efforts in an endeavor which includes thousands of plaintiffs, their lawyers, a slew of big German firms and several East European countries.

Germany hoped a compensation fund would be launched on September 1 this year, the 60th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland which triggered World War II.

But negotiations stalled on the size of the fund and on guarantees sought by the firms -- among them industrial giants such as Siemens DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen -- of protection from further claims.

There is also disagreement about how many survivors will be eligible to draw on the fund, with estimates ranging from 700,000 to more than two million.

Lambsdorff said they did not discuss on Tuesday an overall figure for the compensation fund, to which both the German government and the firms would contribute.

In the past, Lambsdorf has dismissed as unrealistic claims by the lawyers for more than $20 billion and the $1.7 billion top offer by German industry.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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