The German government yesterday dismissed a report that a number of leading companies had reached agreement on how to compensate Jews and others forced to work as slaves during the Nazi era, writes Denis Staunton in Berlin.
The report in today's issue of the news magazine Der Spiegel claims that the firms had agreed to set up a compensation fund for the victims.
Many big German companies profited from slave labour during the war but few have been willing to offer compensation to their victims.
Only about 15,000 former slave labourers have received compensation, usually in lump sums of between £600 and £1,400.
The electrical giant Siemens, for example, paid out DM7 million (£2.8 million) in 1962.
But it recently refused to pay a penny to a few old people who missed out on that offer, despite recording a profit of DM2.5 billion last year.
The leader of Germany's Jewish community, Mr Ignatz Bubis, said that the issue of compensation was a moral one.
He suggested that the attitude of many firms left much to be desired.
"I have been told that Volkswagen sponsored a Rolling Stones tour at a cost of DM35 million but they only gave the slave labourers DM20 million - and they gave it reluctantly," he said.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, has urged German firms to come to terms with the past by compensating those who were exploited during the second World War.