BERLIN. July 6: The lower house of the German parliament today overwhelmingly passed a long-awaited law on setting up a five-billion dollar foundation to compensate former Nazi slaves and forced labourers, reports AFP.

The 556-42 vote in the Bundestag chamber cleared the way for a final passage by the Bundesrat upper house on July 14

Germany, the United States and representatives of the former victims have been discussing the creation of the Remembrance. Responsibility and the Future foundation, that will make the payments, for more than a year.

Germany could begin pay-

ments io former Nazi slaves and forced labourers by the end of the year if legal issues are re-s<>U-e<| in US courts, the German negotiator Otto Lambsdorff said last Saturday.

He told the Bundestag there would be a meeting in Berlin on •July 17 at which the German and US governments would sign a final agreement on the payments.

Lambsdorff said last Saturday that German firms were waiting for the United States to make good on "a withdrawal as rapidly as possible of lawsuits (against German firms) in US courts."

He said that if the suits were withdrawn "reasonably

quicklv. we will be able to pay this year money to the organisations" in the German founds -tion being set up to compensate the some 870.000 victims.

US and German negotiators reached agreement last month on a deal that would protect German companies against Ie -gal claims in the United States in return for their contributions to a compensation fund for the victiins.

This legal closure' is the key German demand in return for the payments.

The 10 billion mark (4.8 billion dollars/5.1 billion euro) fund will come from equal contributions from Germany’s business community and the German government’