Vienna - Austria said yesterday it expected to pay some six billion schillings (£350 million approx) in compensation to people forced to work for the Nazis. "The figure will probably be in the region of six billion schillings," Ms Maria Schaumayer, the government's negotiator on Nazi-era labour issues, told Austrian ORF radio.
Ms Schaumayer criticised an 18-billion-schilling lawsuit filed against the Austrian state and industry by a US lawyer, Mr Ed Fagan, earlier this month. "The sums are absurd," she said, pointing out that the claim represented about 10 per cent of Austria's gross domestic product.